Author: Steward AM1, Morgan JD2, Espinosa JP3, Turk DC3, Patel KV4
Affiliation: <sup>1</sup>Center for Pain Research on Impact, Measurement, and Effectiveness, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle; Computational Neuroscience Program, University of Washington, Seattle.
<sup>2</sup>Center for Pain Research on Impact, Measurement, and Effectiveness, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle; Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota.
<sup>3</sup>Center for Pain Research on Impact, Measurement, and Effectiveness, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle.
<sup>4</sup>Center for Pain Research on Impact, Measurement, and Effectiveness, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle; Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle. Electronic address: kvpatel@uw.edu.
Conference/Journal: J Pain.
Date published: 2017 Sep 12
Other:
Pages: S1526-5900(17)30697-1 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2017.08.006. [Epub ahead of print] , Word Count: 309
Chronic pain is a common condition associated with psychological distress, functional impairments, and age-associated comorbidity. Preliminary studies, based on relatively small sample sizes, suggest that the combination of chronic pain and stress is associated with telomere shortening, a widely recognized marker of cellular aging. We sought to determine the cross-sectional association of chronic pain with telomere length in 7,816 community-dwelling adults ages 20 and older who participated in the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Consistent with previous studies, leukocyte telomere length was assessed using the quantitative polymerase chain reaction method and compared to a DNA reference standard to compute a Telomere to Single Copy Gene (T/S) ratio. Standardized, in-person interviews were used to identify chronic regional pain (CRP) and chronic widespread pain (CWP) in 784 (10.0%) and 266 (3.4%) participants, respectively. Older age, male sex, obesity, and less physical activity were associated with shorter telomere length (P<0.05 for all comparisons); however, there was no association of chronic pain with telomere length. The age-adjusted means (standard error) of telomere length T/S ratios were 1.04 (0.02), 1.03 (0.02), and 1.02 (0.02) in participants with no chronic pain, CRP, and CWP, respectively (P=0.69). In addition, chronic pain did not modify the effects of age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, or psychological distress on telomere length. In summary, chronic regional and widespread pain were not associated with telomere length in this nationally representative study; however, we could not determine associations of pain duration and severity with telomere length because of limitations in pain assessment data.
PERSPECTIVE: The findings from the current study do not support the hypothesis that chronic pain accelerates cellular aging as measured by leukocyte telomere length. Additional population-based studies with more detailed assessments of pain and stress are needed to further investigate potential interactive effects on telomere length and other biomarkers of aging.
Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.
KEYWORDS: Chronic pain; aging; epidemiology; telomere
PMID: 28919432 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2017.08.006