Testing the Biopsychosocial Model of Pain and Aging in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

The biopsychosocial model of pain and aging was tested in 30,097 community-dwelling people, aged 45 to 85, using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Baseline information on pain (presence, intensity, and impact), sociodemographic, cognitive, physical, and biopsychosocial measures was collected through an in-home interview, in-person assessment, and a telephone questionnaire. Significant correlates of pain presence were sex, education, ethnicity, income, marital status, Biophysical, Cognitive-motor, and Psychosocial factors. Significant correlates of pain intensity were education, ethnicity, income, Biophysical, Cognitive-motor, and Psychosocial factors. Significant correlates of pain impact were sex, ethnicity, income, language conversation, Biophysical, and Psychosocial factors. Other physical, treatment, comorbidity, and biospecimen measures differed within and between pain outcomes. Age was significant in bivariate analysis but not in multivariate analysis. These results support the biopsychosocial model of pain and aging for multiple pain outcomes, highlighting the variability of pain in older adults.