ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences2024
Musculoskeletal Pain Characteristics and Objectively Measured Physical Activity in Older Adults.
Article in The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of digital pain management for older adults with musculoskeletal pain: systematic review with meta-analysis.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Pooled it
- Exercise Habits and Preferences of Community-Dwelling Older Adults with Chronic Pain: An Exploratory Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPain is associated with reports of restricted physical activity (PA), yet the association between musculoskeletal pain characteristics and objectively measured PA quantities and patterns in late life is not well understood.
methodsA total of 553 adults (mean age 75.8 ± 8.4 years, 54.4% women) in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) completed a health interview and subsequent 7-day wrist-worn ActiGraph assessment in the free-living environment between 2015 and 2020. Pain characteristics, including pain presence in 6x sites (ie, shoulders, hands/wrists, low back, hip, knees, and feet), pain laterality in each site, and pain distribution were assessed. PA metrics were summarized into total daily activity counts (TAC), activity fragmentation, active minutes/day, and diurnal patterns of activity. Linear regression models and mixed-effects models examined the association between pain characteristics and PA outcomes, adjusted for demographics and comorbidities.
resultsUnilateral knee pain was associated with 184 070 fewer TAC (p = .039) and 36.2 fewer active minutes/day (p = .032) compared to those without knee pain. Older adults with shoulder pain or hand/wrist pain had more active minutes compared to those without pain (p < .05 for all). For diurnal patterns of activity, participants with knee pain had fewer activity counts during the afternoon (12:00 pm to 5:59 pm). Analyses stratified by sex showed that these associations were only significant among women.
conclusionsOur study highlights the importance of assessing pain laterality in addition to pain presence and suggests that pain interferes with multiple aspects of daily activity. Longitudinal studies are needed to assess the temporality of these findings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.