The association of painful and non-painful morbidities with frailty
Full reference: Chaplin, WJ, Lewis, HR, Shahtaheri, SM, Millar, BS, McWilliams, DF, Gladman, JRF, Walsh, DA. The association of painful and non-painful morbidities with frailty: a cross sectional analysis of a cohort of community dwelling older people. BMC Geriatrics 2024, 24, 158. Doi 10.1186/s12877-023-04602-w
Frailty refers to being more vulnerable to decline as one gets older, which means that recovering from illnesses or injuries takes longer. Our previous research showed that pain increases the chances of becoming frail in the following year.
People who live with frailty or pain often have other health conditions (morbidities). Some of these conditions, like osteoarthritis, can cause pain, while others, such as high blood pressure, do not cause pain. In our study, we explored the link between pain and frailty and having more painful health conditions.
We studied data from 2185 people aged 60-96 years who completed the Investigating Musculoskeletal Health and Wellbeing survey. Of the participants, 430 (20%) were classified as frail. Our study found that individuals with more health conditions had a higher risk of being frail. We further categorised these into painful and non-painful conditions. We found that health conditions, whether painful or not, are linked to frailty. We confirmed that pain is linked to frailty, and that the link between pain and frailty cannot be explained simply by painful health conditions.
Simultaneously treating both pain and other health conditions might be important if we are to delay or prevent frailty.