Social pain and physical pain: a cohort study to explore the association of social isolation and loneliness with chronic pain among older adults in China

Social pain and physical pain: a cohort study to explore the association of social isolation and loneliness with chronic pain among older adults in China | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Social pain and physical pain: a cohort study to explore the association of social isolation and loneliness with chronic pain among older adults in China Xinru Han, Yiwei Qiao, Jialong Tan, Zhi Luo, Stephen Nicholas, and 4 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4550828/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background Accelerated by population aging, social isolation and loneliness have correlated significantly with the health of older adults. This study investigates the association of social isolation and loneliness on the prevalence of chronic pain among Chinese older adults. Methods Participants from waves of the Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) with no chronic pain in baseline 2011, and their conditions of chronic pain in wave 2018, were analyzed. The exposure factors were social isolation and loneliness. Social isolation was assessed by a comprehensive multi-factor measure, while loneliness and the outcome variable, chronic pain, were self-reported. The association of the exposure factors on the prevalence of chronic pain was conducted by logistic regression. Results 2,477 older adults who did not suffer from chronic pain at baseline 2011 were enrolled, of whom 1,335 participants (53.90%) developed chronic pain over a span of seven years. The results showed that social isolation (OR:1.19, 95%CI: 1.01 to 1.41) and loneliness (OR:1.53, 95%CI: 1.26 to 1.87) were associated with an elevated risk of chronic pain over seven years. It showed no statistically significant interaction associations between social isolation and feelings of loneliness. Conclusions Older adults with social isolation or loneliness tended to experience chronic pain, emphasizing the importance of incorporating social support and community engagement into chronic pain treatment strategies. Social isolation Loneliness Chronic pain Cohort study Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementaryMaterial1.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4550828","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":314007108,"identity":"10cbfa72-6592-476f-a998-effac4e14aae","order_by":0,"name":"Xinru Han","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Wuhan University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xinru","middleName":"","lastName":"Han","suffix":""},{"id":314007109,"identity":"7abed1e0-c668-4dd9-bf92-c4b1fa89d55c","order_by":1,"name":"Yiwei Qiao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Wuhan 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study","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4550828/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4550828/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eBackground Accelerated by population aging, social isolation and loneliness have correlated significantly with the health of older adults. This study investigates the association of social isolation and loneliness on the prevalence of chronic pain among Chinese older adults.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMethods Participants from waves of the Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) with no chronic pain in baseline 2011, and their conditions of chronic pain in wave 2018, were analyzed. The exposure factors were social isolation and loneliness. Social isolation was assessed by a comprehensive multi-factor measure, while loneliness and the outcome variable, chronic pain, were self-reported. The association of the exposure factors on the prevalence of chronic pain was conducted by logistic regression.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eResults 2,477 older adults who did not suffer from chronic pain at baseline 2011 were enrolled, of whom 1,335 participants (53.90%) developed chronic pain over a span of seven years. The results showed that social isolation (OR:1.19, 95%CI: 1.01 to 1.41) and loneliness (OR:1.53, 95%CI: 1.26 to 1.87) were associated with an elevated risk of chronic pain over seven years. It showed no statistically significant interaction associations between social isolation and feelings of loneliness.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConclusions Older adults with social isolation or loneliness tended to experience chronic pain, emphasizing the importance of incorporating social support and community engagement into chronic pain treatment strategies.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Social pain and physical pain: a cohort study to explore the association of social isolation and loneliness with chronic pain among older adults in China","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-06-24 15:06:19","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4550828/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"427acda0-e76d-4cd7-9eba-39067c862ee5","owner":[],"postedDate":"June 24th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-11-25T13:23:56+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-06-24 15:06:19","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4550828","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4550828","identity":"rs-4550828","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}