Department of Psychology, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA.
Department of Dental Practice and Rural Health, School of Dentistry, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA.
Pain Med. 2021 Mar 18;22(3):567-576. doi: 10.1093/pm/pnaa390.
Pain continues to be an important public health concern, especially given the opioid crisis in industrialized countries. It is important to understand the association between emotions such as fear and anxiety and the experience of pain as both a physiological and affective experience. Fear or anxiety about pain is in fact a well-known predictor of and close associate of pain. Nociception and pain history differ depending on age, yet little empirical evidence exists on how fear of pain varies over the life span. The purpose of this study was to provide a cross-sectional examination of the relations between age and fear of pain across the adult life span.
Using cross-sectional data from 4,122 participants who completed the Fear of Pain Questionnaire-9, structural equation modeling and regression techniques were used to examine the association between fear of pain and age.
A positive linear association was discovered between age and fear of severe or minor pain, and a negative association was discovered between age and fear of medical or dental pain. Quadratic and cubic relations were also significant for fear of severe pain, fear of medical and dental pain, and overall fear of pain, but not for fear of minor pain.
Unique trajectories for different components of pain-related fear exist across the adult life span and may be affected by increased exposure to medical and dental experiences over time and by the awareness of a greater likelihood of experiencing pain later in the life span.
疼痛仍然是一个重要的公共卫生关注点，特别是考虑到工业化国家的阿片类药物危机。了解恐惧和焦虑等情绪与疼痛体验之间的关系非常重要，因为疼痛既是一种生理体验，也是一种情感体验。对疼痛的恐惧或焦虑实际上是疼痛的一个已知预测因素和密切相关因素。伤害感受和疼痛史因年龄而异，但关于疼痛恐惧如何随生命周期而变化的实证证据很少。本研究的目的是提供对成人生命周期中疼痛恐惧与年龄之间关系的横断面研究。
使用来自完成疼痛恐惧问卷-9 的 4122 名参与者的横断面数据，使用结构方程模型和回归技术来检验疼痛恐惧与年龄之间的关联。
发现疼痛恐惧与年龄之间存在正线性关系，与严重或轻微疼痛的恐惧呈正相关，与医疗或牙科疼痛的恐惧呈负相关。对于严重疼痛、医疗和牙科疼痛以及整体疼痛恐惧，二次和三次关系也很显著，但轻微疼痛的二次和三次关系不显著。
不同疼痛相关恐惧成分在成人生命周期中存在独特的轨迹，可能受到随着时间的推移对医疗和牙科体验的更多接触以及对生命后期更有可能经历疼痛的认识的影响。
