Correlation of Physical Activity with Pain Catastrophizing and Cognitive Function in Older Adults with Chronic Pain: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Objectives: To determine, the correlation of physical activity with pain catastrophizing and cognitive function in community-dwelling older adults with chronic pain. Design: Pilot cross-sectional study. Setting: Community-dwelling older adults residing in Southern Karnataka, India. Participants: Fifteen community-dwelling older adults aged ≥65 years, with chronic pain of ≥3 months’ duration from Southern Karnataka. Main outcome measures: Physical activity was measured using the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE), pain catastrophizing using the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), and cognitive function using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Normality was confirmed using the Shapiro–Wilk test, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used for inferential analysis, with significance set at p < 0.05. Results: Mean age was 74.80 ± 7.23 years (46.7% male, 53.3% female); mean pain duration was 50.53 ± 39.19 months. Mean PASE, PCS, and MoCA scores were 72.47 ± 25.93, 24.20 ± 9.25, and 21.33 ± 2.58 respectively; 60.0% of participants fell into the Moderate physical activity category, and 93.3% demonstrated mild cognitive impairment. All three variables were normally distributed (Shapiro–Wilk p > 0.05). A statistically significant negative correlation was found between physical activity and pain catastrophizing (r = –0.650, p = 0.009). Physical activity showed a positive, non-significant correlation with cognitive function (r = 0.296, p = 0.284). Pain catastrophizing showed a negative, non-significant correlation with cognitive function (r = –0.419, p = 0.120). Conclusions: Physical activity was significantly and strongly negatively correlated with pain catastrophizing in this pilot sample of older adults with chronic pain, indicating that participants who were more physically active tended to report markedly less catastrophic thinking about their pain. Physical activity showed a weak, positive but non-significant correlation with cognitive function, while pain catastrophizing showed a moderate, negative but non-significant correlation with cognitive function. Overall, these findings suggest that physical activity is meaningfully associated with lower pain catastrophizing, while its relationship with cognitive function, and the relationship between pain catastrophizing and cognitive function, remain directionally consistent with expectations but did not reach statistical significance in this sample. KEYWORDS: Physical Activity, Pain, Catastrophizing scale, Cognitive Function, Chronic Pain.