Coping With Chronic Pain Among Younger, Middle-Aged, and Older Adults Living With Neurological Injury and Disease

This study looks at how older, middle-aged, and younger adults deal with long-lasting pain related to nerve damage and disease. The researchers wanted to know if the ways people handle pain changes as they get older, and whether age affects how strongly pain and coping strategies are connected. The study found that older adults use a wider variety of coping methods and tend to use certain strategies, like pacing themselves and seeking support, more often than younger adults. Also, the link between pain and coping seems weaker in older adults, suggesting they cope regardless of how much pain they're in.

• 1
  Older adults reported a wider range of frequently used strategies and significantly more frequent engagement in activity pacing, seeking social support, and use of coping self-statements than did younger or middle-aged adults.
• 2
  For younger adults, efforts at coping generally increased with greater pain severity, whereas this relationship did not exist for older adults.
• 3
  Older adults utilized five of nine strategies at least three times per week, as compared to two of nine for middle-aged adults and only one of nine for younger adults.