ArticlePain medicine (Malden, Mass.)2019
Pain Intensity, Disability, and Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain: Does Age Matter?
Article in Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 88 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
88 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 179 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ultrasound-guided botulinum toxin type A for shoulder pain: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2026Pooled it
- Exercise Therapy Versus Manual Therapy for the Management of Pain Intensity, Disability, and Physical Function in People With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of different types of Tai Chi intervention on motor function in older adults: a systematic review.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2025Pooled it
- The effect of exercises done with virtual reality glasses on pain, daily life activities, and quality of life of individuals with lumbar disc hernia: a randomized controlled trial.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2025Trial
- Musculoskeletal Pain in Family Caregivers: Does a Therapeutic Physical Program in Primary Care Work? A Randomized Controlled Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Cross-sectional associations of proteomic age acceleration with self-reported physical and mental health and depression symptoms among those with and without cancer.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2026Article
- How pain intensity and mental disorders shape chronic pain sick leave and quality of life in the general Spanish population.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Factors associated with nonpharmacological treatment use among older adults with chronic low back pain tapering opioids.Pain management · 2025Article
- Pain Resilience and Chronic Low Back Pain Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Pace of Biological Aging.Biological research for nursing · 2025Article
- Poorer Quality of Life Outcomes Are Associated with Higher Levels of Stress, Lower Levels of Resilience, and Poorer Adjustment to Cancer in Outpatients Receiving Chemotherapy.Seminars in oncology nursing · 2025Article
- Sociodemographic factors and biologic therapy exposure impacting health-related quality of life in psoriatic arthritis - findings from a nationwide registry Reuma.pt.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Differences in demographics and clinical outcomes in older, middle-aged, and younger adults with low back pain receiving chiropractic care.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2025Observational
- Development of the barriers to opioid access scale among individuals with chronic pain.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2025Article
- Quality of lumbar paraspinal muscles in patients with chronic low back pain and its relationship to pain duration, pain intensity, and quality of life.European radiology · 2025Article
- Lived Experiences of Older Adults With Chronic Low Back Pain and Implications on Their Daily Life: A Metasynthesis of Qualitative Research.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translation · 2025Review
- Psychosocial Assessment as a Key Component in an Integrated, Personalized Care Pathway: A Protocol for a Low Back Pain Randomized Controlled Trial.Pain and therapy · 2025Article
- Temporal association between chronic pain and frailty occurrence, and the modifiable role of a healthy lifestyle in Chinese middle-aged and older population: a community based, prospective cohort study.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2025Article
- Trends in chronic neck and low back pain prevalence in Spain (2006-2020): differences by sex, age, and social class.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2025Observational
- Do quality of life and work productivity change in early axial spondyloarthritis and non-axial spondyloarthritis patients after 2 years?Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
28 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveNonspecific chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a frequent medical condition among middle-aged and older adults. Its detrimental consequences for functional ability and quality of life are well known. However, less is known about associations of chronological age with disability and well-being among CLBP patients. Coping with pain may be harder with advancing age due to additional age-associated losses of physical, sensory, and other resources, resulting in higher disability and lower quality of life. Alternatively, older patients may feel less impaired and report higher quality of life than younger patients because the experience of chronic pain may be better anticipated and more "normative" in old age.
methodsWe investigated an age-heterogeneous sample of 228 CLBP patients (mean age = 59.1 years, SD = 10.2 years, range 41-82 years). Our outcomes were pain intensity, pain disability (as assessed by self-reported activity restrictions and performance-based tests), and measures of quality of life (health-related quality of life: SF-12 physical and mental health; well-being: anxiety, depression, perceived control over life, affective distress).
resultsAlthough older patients had higher performance-based disability, they scored higher on mental health and on most measures of well-being than younger patients.
conclusionsOur findings provide evidence for a "paradoxical" pattern of age effects in CLBP patients and are thus in line with other studies based on nonclinical samples: Although disability in CLBP patients increases with advancing age, indicators of quality of life are equal or even higher in older patients.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.