Partner Pain and Affect in the Daily Lives of Older Couples

Daily health and well-being in adulthood and old age: The role of adverse childhood experiences

How susceptible our daily affect is to fluctuations in physical health indicates how well we adapt to everyday health challenges. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are known to have a lasting impact on everyday emotion regulation and adaptation across the lifespan, but less is known about whether and how such adversity is linked to the susceptibility of affect to everyday health challenges. This study therefore tested whether ACEs were associated with daily reports of positive and negative affect and examined weather they moderated emotional reactions to daily physical symptoms in adulthood and old age. We used data from the National Study of Daily Experiences 2 (NSDE-2) in which middle-aged and older adults (N = 2,022; Mage = 56 years; range: 33-84) reported symptoms and affect on eight consecutive evenings. Multi-level models indicated that cumulative ACEs as well as two individual childhood adversities (i.e. physical and sexual abuse by a parent) were independently associated with exacerbated increases in negative affect on days with more symptoms. Findings add to literature on the role of early adversity for the maintenance of everyday well-being and highlight the potential importance of such experiences for coping and adaption in the face of daily health challenges across adulthood and old age.

Mental and Physical Well-Being of Partners of People Living with Chronic Pain: A Narrative Review

This narrative review aims to explore the mental and physical well-being of partners of individuals living with chronic pain. Chronic pain not only affects those who suffer from it, but also significantly impacts the lives of their partners; however, the impacts on partners are not well recognised, despite extensive evidence indicating that their quality of life can be equally affected. This review synthesises current literature to identify the psychological and physical challenges faced by these partners, including increased stress, anxiety, depression, and the potential for developing chronic health conditions themselves. A search of Medline for "chronic pain" and "partner/spouse" from January 1990 to the present was performed, and relevant articles were selected for review. The main findings were that while partners often experience a range of negative physical and psychosocial impacts on their quality of life, dyadic coping strategies can mitigate these effects. This review underscores the importance of future research to develop targeted interventions that address the unique needs of this population, promoting better health outcomes and fostering resilience in the face of chronic pain.

Affective Sensitivity to Air Pollution (ASAP): Person-specific associations between daily air pollution and affective states

Individuals' sensitivity to climate hazards is a central component of their vulnerability to climate change. In this paper, we introduce and outline the utility of a new intraindividual variability construct, affective sensitivity to air pollution (ASAP)-defined as the extent to which an individual's affective states fluctuate in accordance with daily changes in air quality. As such, ASAP pushes beyond examination of differences in individuals' exposures to air pollution to examination of differences in individuals' sensitivities to air pollution. Building on known associations between air pollution exposure and adverse mental health outcomes, we empirically illustrate how application of Bayesian multilevel models to intensive repeated measures data obtained in an experience sampling study (N = 150) over one year can be used to examine whether and how individuals' daily affective states fluctuate with the daily concentrations of outdoor air pollution in their county. Results indicate construct viability, as we found substantial interindividual differences in ASAP for both affect arousal and affect valence. This suggests that repeated measures of individuals' day-to-day affect provides a new way of measuring their sensitivity to climate change. In addition to contributing to discourse around climate vulnerability, the intraindividual variability construct and methodology proposed here can help better integrate affect and mental health in climate adaptation policies, plans, and programs.

Brief Pain Inventory Pain Interference Subscale: Assessing Interference With Daily Living Activities in Older Adults With Multisite Musculoskeletal Pain

Objectives

This study aims to determine domains of pain interference in daily routines assessed using the Brief Pain Inventory, in relation to multisite musculoskeletal pain among older adults living in the community.

Design

The MOBILIZE Boston Study is a population-based study of 749 adults aged 70 and older.

Measurements

Chronic musculoskeletal pain was assessed using a joint pain questionnaire and grouped as: no pain, single-site and multisite pain. The Brief Pain Inventory pain interference (PI) sub-scale assessed level of pain interference (0–10 rating) in 7 domains including general activity, mood, walking, work, relationships with people, sleep, and enjoyment of life. Interference ratings were grouped as: none (0), mild (>0 and ≤ 2), and moderate to severe (>2) PI.

Results

PI was more common among women and those with less education compared to others. Older adults with chronic conditions such as osteoarthritis, depression, spinal stenosis, peripheral artery disease, and asthma/lung disease were more likely than their peers to report PI (p < 0.05). Multisite musculoskeletal pain was strongly associated with pain interference in all domains (p < 0.05). More than half of older adults with multisite musculoskeletal pain reported moderate to severe PI with general activity and walking. The highest prevalence of moderate to severe PI (score >2) in general activity was seen in participants with depression (62%), knee and hand osteoarthritis (71%) and peripheral artery disease (65%).

Conclusion

Greater attention to PI and PI domains such as general activity and walking, could aid in efforts to reduce the overall impact of multisite musculoskeletal pain among older adults.