Article Text
PDF
Abstract
Background and objective Chronic pain may be an early indicator of cognitive decline, but previous studies have not systematically examined the population-level associations between widespread pain and adverse cognitive outcomes and stroke. This study was designed to determine the association between widespread pain, a common subtype of chronic pain, and subsequent dementia, Alzheimer’s disease dementia and stroke.
Methods This retrospective cohort study used data from the US community-based Framingham Heart Study. Pain status was assessed at a single time point between 1990 and 1994. Widespread pain was determined based on the Framingham Heart Study pain homunculus. Dementia follow-up occurred across a median of 10 years (IQR, 6–13 years) for persons who were dementia free at baseline. Proportional hazard models examined associations between widespread pain and incident dementia, Alzheimer’s disease dementia and stroke.
Results A total of 347 (14.1%) subjects fulfilled the criteria for widespread pain, whereas 2117 (85.9%) subjects did not. Of 188 cases of incident all-cause dementia, 128 were Alzheimer’s disease dementia. In addition, 139 patients suffered stroke during the follow-up period. After multivariate adjustment including age and sex, widespread pain was associated with 43% increase in all-cause dementia risk (HR: 1.43; 95% CI 1.06 to 1.92), 47% increase in Alzheimer’s disease dementia risk (HR: 1.47; 95% CI 1.13 to 2.20) and 29% increase in stroke risk (HR: 1.29; 95% CI 1.08 to 2.54). Comparable results were shown in the subgroup of individuals over 65 years old.
Conclusion Widespread pain was associated with an increased incidence of all-cause dementia, Alzheimer’s disease dementia and stroke.
Trial registration number NCT00005121.
- chronic pain
- clinical pain
- epidemiology
Data availability statement
Data described in the manuscript, code book, and analytic code will not be made available because the authors are prohibited from distributing or transferring the data and codebooks on which their research was based to any other individual or entity under the terms of an approved NHLBI Framingham Heart Study Research Proposal and Data and Materials Distribution Agreement through which the authors obtained these data.
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Data availability statement
Data described in the manuscript, code book, and analytic code will not be made available because the authors are prohibited from distributing or transferring the data and codebooks on which their research was based to any other individual or entity under the terms of an approved NHLBI Framingham Heart Study Research Proposal and Data and Materials Distribution Agreement through which the authors obtained these data.
Footnotes
Contributors All authors had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. Study concept and design: all authors. Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: all authors. Drafting of the manuscript: KW. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: HL. Statistical analysis: KW. Obtained funding: HL. Supervision: HL.
Funding Support was provided by the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China and Chongqing Medical University Scholarship Fund for Development of Young Talents (XRJH201901).
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.