Love Hurts: Marital Status and Chronic Pain
2024
Love Hurts: Marital Status and Chronic Pain
Sample size: 19975
publication
Evidence: moderate
Author Information
Author(s): Choi S Emily, Wagner Brandon
Primary Institution: Texas Tech University
Hypothesis
How does marital status influence later-life chronic pain with a focus on gender-specific variations?
Conclusion
Marital status significantly influences the experience of chronic pain in older adults, with variations between genders.
Supporting Evidence
- Women reported moderate-to-severe limiting pain significantly more frequently than men.
- Unmarried men had lower odds of experiencing moderate-to-severe limiting pain compared to married men.
- Only widowed women had lower odds of experiencing moderate-to-severe limiting pain compared to married women.
Takeaway
Being married can affect how much pain older people feel, and this can be different for men and women.
Methodology
The study used fixed effects logit models on data from the Health and Retirement Study (1998–2016).
Participant Demographics
Community-dwelling American adults aged 50 and above.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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