Co-occurrence of chronic physical pain and psychiatric morbidity in a community sample of older people.

BACKGROUND

Knowledge about co-occurrence of the most frequent chronic pain symptoms with psychiatric morbidity in older people is very limited.

OBJECTIVE

To study the association of psychiatric morbidity and painful physical conditions in people aged 60 years and over.

METHOD

Population-based random sample of 7,040 household residents, aged 60 years and over, in Brazil.

RESULTS

The overall prevalence of pain conditions is 76%. Age-sex specific prevalence of chronic pain conditions such as back pain, joint, abdominal, chest, headaches, reported by respondents ranged from 11.6% up to 51.1%. In logistic regression models, chest pain, head pain, back pain, joint pain and abdominal pain emerged as predictors of psychiatric morbidity. The odds of psychiatric morbidity are also affected by income, ethnicity, origin (urban/rural), and marital status.

CONCLUSION

The association of chronic painful conditions and psychiatric morbidity in late life is statistically strong in this surveyed population.