Chronic Pain Often Leads to Frailty in Older Mexican Americans
/By Pat Anson, PNN Editor
A new study has found that leaving chronic pain untreated or poorly treated can have serious health consequences for senior citizens. Older Mexican Americans who suffer from pain are 1.7 times more likely to become frail, according to findings published in the Journal of Pain.
Frailty is characterized by unintentional weight loss, weakness, exhaustion or slowness in older adults. Chronic pain is a risk factor for frailty in all older adults, but not enough is known about the relationship between pain and frailty in older Latino populations, the fastest growing segment of older adults in the United States.
To learn more about it, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, followed over 3,000 Mexican Americans aged 65 or older. Data was collected from 1995 to 2013.
At the start of the study, participants were asked if they experienced pain in the previous month. Social, health and demographic data were also collected, such as age, sex, marital status, literacy, mental health, disability and medical conditions. Those categorized as frail were not included in the study.
Eighteen years later, 41 percent of the participants who reported pain were considered frail. Old age, hip fractures, depression and disability were also associated with higher odds of becoming frail.
Researchers say older Mexican Americans are particularly prone to frailty because they often have poor access to medical care. They are also nearly twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to suffer from type 2 diabetes, a leading cause of peripheral neuropathy.
“Older Mexican Americans are an underserved population with disparities in healthcare access and delivery and health risks associated to their demographic group,” said Eliseo Pérez-Stable, MD, Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. “This study identifies the need to effectively manage pain in Latino populations by culturally appropriate interventions.”
Women in the study who had higher levels of education or higher mental agility scores were found to have less risk of becoming frail.
“The relationship between social determinants, diabetes, physical function, mobility, frailty and pain in older Mexican Americans is complex and poorly understood,” said Kenneth Ottenbacher, PhD, the study’s principal investigator. “Early assessment and better pain management may prevent early onset of frailty in this group.”
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
