| Summary: | The prevalence of adults 65 years of age and older with significant pain is 25% to 50%,
with many experiencing pain on a daily basis. The financial toll due to chronic pain is
staggering; American's spend nearly $635 billion annually on health care. The purpose of
this mixed methods study was to better understand the relationship between resilience,
general health, and chronic pain in older adults. The quantitative question pertained to the
relationship between resilience and both levels of chronic pain and general health in
elderly chronic pain patients, and the qualitative question addressed participants' lived
experiences of chronic pain. Resilience theory, which suggests that individual strengths
enable people to rise above adversity, grounded the study. Participants were between ages
65 and 75 and were recruited from 3 pain centers and through the Survey Monkey
participant pool; they included 55 older adults with chronic pain who responded to
surveys (including Resilience scale, the Pain Impact Questionnaire-Revised (PIQ-R) Pain
scale, and the Short Form 12 item (version 2) (SF-12v2) Health Survey, and 10 of them
also participated in interviews. Regression analyses found no statistical relationships
between resilience and either chronic pain or general health. Interview participants noted
that to cope with pain they used personal strength, a positive outlook, religion,
spirituality, pain management, physical activity, rest/sleep, managing their life, and
religion and spirituality. Resilient behavior was inherent across various pain diagnoses,
and participants appeared to place a great value in the social networks formed throughout
life. These findings may help medical practitioners have a better understanding of the
relationship between chronic pain and resilience in an aging, at-risk population.
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