TY - JOUR
T1 - Relationship status and quality moderate daily pain-related changes in physical disability, affect, and cognitions in women with chronic pain
AU - Taylor, Shannon Stark
AU - Davis, Mary
AU - Zautra, Alex J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was supported by NIH grant RO1AR046034 (PI Zautra).
PY - 2013/1
Y1 - 2013/1
N2 - The objectives of this study were to examine whether (1) daily pain-related changes in physical functioning differed between happily partnered, unhappily partnered, and unpartnered female chronic pain patients, and (2) affect and pain cognitions mediated the partner status effect on pain-related changes in physical functioning. Two hundred fifty-one women with chronic pain due to osteoarthritis and/or fibromyalgia completed 30 daily electronic diaries assessing pain, affect, pain-related cognitions, and physical functioning. Patients living with a romantic partner also completed a modified version of the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale to assess relationship satisfaction. Multilevel modeling revealed that patients in satisfying unions showed more adaptive daily pain-related changes in physical functioning, pain coping difficulty, and catastrophizing compared to those in unsatisfying unions and those who were unpartnered. Both partnered groups also showed more adaptive pain-related changes in positive affect compared to the unpartnered group. The impact of relationship status on pain-related changes in physical functioning was partly mediated by the pain cognitions catastrophizing and coping difficulty. These results indicate that happily partnered pain patients show less pain-related physical disability and more adaptive affective and cognitive responses to daily pain changes than do unhappily partnered and unpartnered patients. Living in a happy union may bolster the capacity of patients to sustain a sense of pain coping efficacy during pain episodes, which in turn, minimizes pain-related physical activity limitations.
AB - The objectives of this study were to examine whether (1) daily pain-related changes in physical functioning differed between happily partnered, unhappily partnered, and unpartnered female chronic pain patients, and (2) affect and pain cognitions mediated the partner status effect on pain-related changes in physical functioning. Two hundred fifty-one women with chronic pain due to osteoarthritis and/or fibromyalgia completed 30 daily electronic diaries assessing pain, affect, pain-related cognitions, and physical functioning. Patients living with a romantic partner also completed a modified version of the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale to assess relationship satisfaction. Multilevel modeling revealed that patients in satisfying unions showed more adaptive daily pain-related changes in physical functioning, pain coping difficulty, and catastrophizing compared to those in unsatisfying unions and those who were unpartnered. Both partnered groups also showed more adaptive pain-related changes in positive affect compared to the unpartnered group. The impact of relationship status on pain-related changes in physical functioning was partly mediated by the pain cognitions catastrophizing and coping difficulty. These results indicate that happily partnered pain patients show less pain-related physical disability and more adaptive affective and cognitive responses to daily pain changes than do unhappily partnered and unpartnered patients. Living in a happy union may bolster the capacity of patients to sustain a sense of pain coping efficacy during pain episodes, which in turn, minimizes pain-related physical activity limitations.
KW - Chronic pain
KW - Daily process methodology
KW - Pain coping
KW - Spousal relations
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84871634058&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84871634058&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.pain.2012.10.004
DO - 10.1016/j.pain.2012.10.004
M3 - Article
C2 - 23200258
AN - SCOPUS:84871634058
SN - 0304-3959
VL - 154
SP - 147
EP - 153
JO - Pain
JF - Pain
IS - 1
ER -