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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Rohini G. Khorana, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, MedStar Research Institute, 6495 New Hampshire Avenue, Suite 201, Hyattsville, MD 20783, 443-803-5918, rkhorana@gwu.edu and Madeline M. Rice, PhD, Epidemiology-Biostatistics, George Washington University, 2300 Eye St. NW Ste 119B, Washington DC, DC 20037.

Although pain is one of the most common reasons for seeking medical attention, little is known about the levels and consequences of general pain in the older, non-institutionalized population. Utilizing data from two waves of the Second Longitudinal Study on Aging (LSOA II), analysis revealed that 31.88% of respondents reported being “often troubled with pain” in Wave 2. The two-year remission rate of pain (32 per 100) was greater than the two-year incidence rate of pain (21 per 100). Recognizing factors that contribute to the remission of pain may help to identify older people with a greater likelihood of improvement from pain, and to identify target areas for decreasing and preventing pain in the older population. Although many studies document factors leading to pain, very little literature exists on factors relating to remission of pain. Preliminary results from LSOA analysis suggest that number of chronic conditions, age, no difficulty walking, no arthritis, and increased social activities are factors that contribute to pain remission. The total sample of respondents (n=4,513) will be randomly divided in half, and various predictors will be tested in a multivariate logistic regression model in order to create a clinical prediction rule that compares remission of pain to no remission. The validity and reliability of the rule will be tested utilizing the other half of the sample, or the validation cohort.

Learning Objectives: