Chronic Non-Cancer Pain and Spousal Relationship Quality Among Older Adults in the United States

• In Event: 4266 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: 2. Caregiving

Abstract

Chronic non-cancer pain is prevalent among older adults and affects their daily functioning and relationship maintaining, yet the role of chronic pain in the social well-being of people has been paid little attention in the literature on health and social relationships. I used longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine associations between perceived spousal support and strains and chronic pain among U.S. older adults 65+. Using fixed-effects and hybrid analyses with multiple imputation and sample-weight adjusted, results show that changes in chronic pain severity is not associated with changes in perceived support and strains. However, the average pain severity across wave is significantly associated with less support and more strain. The findings suggest that changes in pain severity does not affect short-term spousal quality, but if chronic pain is persistently severe over time, it might increase the risks of low-quality relationships.

Authors

• Yulin Yang, SUNY - Buffalo

• Yan Zhang, Michigan State University