Age and psychosocial contributors to well-being among older adults living with chronic pain

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of demographic characteristics.

Demographic characteristics	M (SD) or N (%)
Age in years	66 (9)
Age in years at pain onset	51 (14)
Gender
Man	66 (35%)
Woman	125 (65%)
Missing or prefer not to answer	27
Ethnic background
Asian	7 (3.8%)
Black	3 (1.6%)
Indigenous	2 (1.1%)
White	173 (94%)
Missing or prefer not to answer	33

Table 2. Number and percent of participants from each Canadian region.

Canadian region	N (%)
Atlantic Canada (New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island)	18 (15%)
British Columbia	36 (30%)
Canadian Prairies (Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan)	26 (21.7%)
Central Canada (Ontario, Québec)	15 (12.5%)
Territories (Northwest Territories, Yukon)	8 (6.7%)
Missing or prefer not to answer	98

Figure 1. Bivariate correlations between key study variables. Pink represents positive correlations and grey represents negative correlations. Non-significant correlations are crossed out.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics for pain-related and well-being measures.

Measures	M (SD) or N (%)	Range	Reliability
Self-acceptance	4.60 (1.11)	1–7	0.70
Autonomy	5.54 (1.32)	1–7	0.75
Environmental Mastery	5.24 (1.40)	1–7	0.76
Overall Eudaimonic Well-being	3.75 (0.54)	1–5	0.79
Physical Functioning	1.78 (0.44)	1–3	0.86
Psychological inflexibility	4.29 (1.10)	1–7	0.91
Pain Disability Index	5.86 (2.28)	1–12	0.85
Role Limitation	6.50 (2.35)	0–10	0.71

Reliability is measured with Chronbach’s alpha.

Table 4. Number and percentage participant-reported pain experiences.

Pain experiences	N (%)
Pain experienced in past week	196 (90%)
Pain is persistent if not treated	179 (90%)
Pain can be reduced with certain activities	129 (70%)
Pain worsens with certain activities	150 (82%)
Pain episodes occur	128 (59%)
Know what causes pain episodes	78 (59%)
Pain episodes occur with certain activities	96 (72%)
Pain episodes occur with certain bodily functions	38 (29%)

Table 5. Multiple regression model predicting variance in eudaimonic well-being.

Predictors	Estimates	Std. β	95% CI	Std. CI	p
Age	0.01	0.19	0.00 to 0.02	0.03 to 0.34	.02
Age at Pain Onset	−0.00	−0.01	−0.01 to 0.01	−0.16 to 0.14	.92
Physical Function	0.19	0.16	0.00 to 0.37	0.00 to 0.31	.04
Pain Catastrophizing	−0.17	−0.30	−0.27 to −0.07	−0.48 to −0.12	.01
Pain Disability Index	0.06	0.24	0.02 to 0.09	0.09 to 0.39	.02
Psychological Inflexibility	0.00	0.00	−0.09 to 0.09	−0.18 to 0.18	.99

Bolded values reflect significance at the p < .05 level.

Table 6. Multiple regression model predicting variance in self-acceptance.

Predictors	Estimates	Std. β	95% CI	Std. CI	p
Age	0.03	0.23	0.01 to 0.05	0.09 to 0.38	.01
Age at Pain Onset	0.00	0.05	−0.01 to 0.01	−0.08 to 0.19	.43
Physical Function	0.17	0.07	−0.18 to 0.52	−0.07 to 0.21	.33
Pain Catastrophizing	−0.34	−0.30	−0.53 to −0.14	−0.46 to −0.13	.01
Pain Disability Index	−0.02	−0.04	−0.09 to 0.05	−0.18 to 0.10	.56
Psychological Inflexibility	−0.15	−0.15	−0.32 to 0.01	−0.32 to 0.01	.07

Bolded values reflect significance at the p < .05 level.

Table 7. Multiple regression model predicting variance in autonomy.

Predictors	Estimates	Std. β	95% CI	Std. CI	p
Age	0.00	0.01	−0.02 to 0.03	−0.15 to 0.17	.88
Age at Pain Onset	0.00	0.02	−0.01 to 0.02	−0.13 to 0.18	.76
Physical Function	0.88	0.30	0.41 to 1.34	0.14 to 0.45	.01
Pain Catastrophizing	−0.27	−0.20	−0.52 to −0.01	−0.38 to −0.01	.04
Pain Disability Index	0.18	0.31	0.09 to 0.27	0.16 to 0.47	.01
Psychological Inflexibility	0.06	0.05	−0.16 to 0.27	−0.14 to 0.23	.62

Bolded values reflect significance at the p < 0.05 level.

Table 8. Multiple regression model predicting variance in environmental mastery.

Predictors	Estimates	Std. β	95% CI	Std. CI	p
Age	−0.02	−0.12	−0.05 to 0.01	−0.28 to 0.03	.13
Age at Pain Onset	0.01	0.13	−0.00 to 0.03	−0.02 to 0.28	.09
Physical Function	0.72	0.23	0.23 to 1.21	0.07 to 0.38	.01
Pain Catastrophizing	−0.32	−0.22	−0.59 to −0.05	−0.41 to −0.04	.02
Pain Disability Index	0.12	0.20	0.03 to 0.21	0.04 to 0.35	.01
Psychological Inflexibility	−0.14	−0.11	−0.37 to 0.09	−0.29 to 0.07	.22

Bolded values reflect significance at the p < .05 level.

Table 9. Relative importance of effect sizes for each dimension of well-being.

Self-Acceptance		Autonomy		Environmental Mastery
Physical functioning	0.12	Physical functioning	0.06	Physical functioning	0.05
Pain catastrophizing	0.07	Pain catastrophizing	0.05	Pain catastrophizing	0.05
Psychological inflexibility	0.06	Psychological inflexibility	0.02	Psychological inflexibility	0.04
Pain disability index	0.02	Pain disability index	0.01	Pain disability index	0.01
Age at pain onset	0.02	Age at pain onset	0.00	Age at pain onset	0.01
Age	0.01	Age	0.00	Age	0.01
R^2	0.25		0.14		0.17
R^2 –of top predictors	0.20		0.11		0.14

Bolded values reflect significance at the p < 0.05 level. A relative importance value of = > 0.02 is considered to be “relatively important.”

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author, NLG. The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the anonymity and confidentiality of research participants.