Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41566373›Full record

ArticleBMC medicine2026

Pain and high-impact pain in community-dwelling older adults in Australia and relation to sociodemographic and health-related factors, including physical disability, psychological distress, and quality of life.

Grace Joshy, Saman Khalatbari-Soltani, Kay Soga, Melonie Martin, Sinan Brown, Fiona M Blyth, Emily Banks

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In one paragraph

Article in BMC medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Grace Joshy *National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, College of Law, Governance, and Policy, The Australian National University, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia. Grace.Joshy@anu.edu.au.
Saman Khalatbari-Soltani *Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Kay SogaNational Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, College of Law, Governance, and Policy, The Australian National University, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia.
Melonie MartinNational Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, College of Law, Governance, and Policy, The Australian National University, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia.
Sinan BrownNational Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, College of Law, Governance, and Policy, The Australian National University, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia.
Fiona M BlythSydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Emily BanksNational Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, College of Law, Governance, and Policy, The Australian National University, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia.

Funding

Australian Research Council, Australia CE170100005National Health and Medical Research Council 1139539
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundChronic pain is common and debilitating and significantly impacts quality of life (QoL). However, large-scale population-based evidence on general bodily pain, pain sufficient to impact daily life (high-impact pain), and their relation to sociodemographic and health-related outcomes is limited.

methodsSelf-administered questionnaire data from the 45 and Up Study (Wave-2, 2012-2015), an Australian population-based cohort study, were used to estimate the prevalence of general and high-impact pain. Modified Poisson regression estimated age- and sex-adjusted prevalence ratios (PRs) quantified their relation to sociodemographic, behavioural, and health characteristics, as well as physical functioning, psychological distress, QoL, and self-rated health.

resultsOverall, the study included n = 142,313 participants. Among them, 31% reported moderate-to-severe bodily pain, and 13% reported high-impact pain. High-impact pain was more common among females (14.3% versus 12.0% in males; PR = 1.24 [1.21-1.28]), older adults (18.8%, PR = 1.73 [1.66-1.79] for age ≥ 80 years; 14.2%, PR = 1.29 [1.26-1.33] for 65-79 years; versus 11.2% for 45-64 years), those least physically active (versus most active), currently smoking (versus never-smoking), obese, or had chronic health conditions. The prevalence of high-impact pain was markedly higher among those with lower education levels, lower household income, physical disability, psychological distress, or low QoL. Similar patterns were observed for bodily pain, although associations were weaker. Consistently, people reporting greater high-impact pain and bodily pain were substantially more likely to experience severe physical functioning limitations, moderate-to-high psychological distress, and poor/fair self-rated health and QoL compared to people without such pain. For example, 47.2% of the 16,825 people with high-impact pain had severe physical limitations versus 4.0% of 30,748 people without impactful pain (PR = 10.35 [9.78-10.95]); among those with high-impact pain, 40.5%, 36.5%, and 26.7%, respectively, had moderate-to-high psychological distress (PR = 4.61 [4.43-4.80]), poor/fair self-rated health (PR = 8.64 [8.16-9.14]), and poor/fair QoL (PR = 8.73 [8.16-9.34]).

conclusionsBodily pain sufficient to interfere with daily life affects around one-in-eight older community-dwelling participants. People of lower socioeconomic position and those with health problems, particularly physical disability, are more likely to experience high-impact pain. Among those experiencing high-impact pain, around half have severely reduced physical functioning or high psychological distress, and a quarter report poor/fair QoL.

Indexed as

Chronic PainIndependent LivingPainPersons with DisabilitiesPsychological DistressQuality of LifeAgedAged, 80 and overAustraliaFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedPrevalenceSociodemographic FactorsSocioeconomic Disparities in HealthAustraliaDisabilityHigh-impact painPainPerson-centred outcomesPhysical functioningPopulation-basedPsychological distressQuality of lifeSelf-rated health

Identifiers

PMID41566373
PMCPMC12870111

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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.