Longitudinal relationships between habitual physical activity and pain tolerance in the general population
Physical activity (PA) might influence the risk or progression of chronic pain through pain tolerance. Hence, we aimed to assess whether habitual leisure-time PA level and PA change affects pain tolerance longitudinally in the population. Our sample (n = 10,732; 51% women) was gathered from the sixt...
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crplos:10.1371/journal.pone.0285041 2024-10-06T13:53:12+00:00 Longitudinal relationships between habitual physical activity and pain tolerance in the general population Årnes, Anders Pedersen Nielsen, Christopher Sievert Stubhaug, Audun Fjeld, Mats Kirkeby Johansen, Aslak Morseth, Bente Strand, Bjørn Heine Wilsgaard, Tom Steingrímsdóttir, Ólöf Anna Russo, Luca Helse Nord RHF 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285041 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285041 en eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PLOS ONE volume 18, issue 5, page e0285041 ISSN 1932-6203 journal-article 2023 crplos https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285041 2024-09-10T04:18:27Z Physical activity (PA) might influence the risk or progression of chronic pain through pain tolerance. Hence, we aimed to assess whether habitual leisure-time PA level and PA change affects pain tolerance longitudinally in the population. Our sample (n = 10,732; 51% women) was gathered from the sixth (Tromsø6, 2007–08) and seventh (Tromsø7, 2015–16) waves of the prospective population-based Tromsø Study, Norway. Level of leisure-time PA (sedentary, light, moderate, or vigorous) was derived from questionnaires; experimental pain tolerance was measured by the cold-pressor test (CPT). We used ordinary, and multiple-adjusted mixed, Tobit regression to assess 1) the effect of longitudinal PA change on CPT tolerance at follow-up, and 2) whether a change in pain tolerance over time varied with level of LTPA. We found that participants with high consistent PA levels over the two surveys (Tromsø6 and Tromsø7) had significantly higher tolerance than those staying sedentary (20.4 s. (95% CI: 13.7, 27.1)). Repeated measurements show that light (6.7 s. (CI 3.4, 10.0)), moderate (CI 14.1 s. (9.9, 18.3)), and vigorous (16.3 s. (CI 6.0, 26.5)) PA groups had higher pain tolerance than sedentary, with non-significant interaction showed slightly falling effects of PA over time. In conclusion, being physically active at either of two time points measured 7–8 years apart was associated with higher pain tolerance compared to being sedentary at both time-points. Pain tolerance increased with higher total activity levels, and more for those who increased their activity level during follow-up. This indicates that not only total PA amount matters but also the direction of change. PA did not significantly moderate pain tolerance change over time, though estimates suggested a slightly falling effect possibly due to ageing. These results support increased PA levels as a possible non-pharmacological pathway towards reducing or preventing chronic pain. Article in Journal/Newspaper Tromsø PLOS Norway Tromsø PLOS ONE 18 5 e0285041 |
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Open Polar |
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PLOS |
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crplos |
language |
English |
description |
Physical activity (PA) might influence the risk or progression of chronic pain through pain tolerance. Hence, we aimed to assess whether habitual leisure-time PA level and PA change affects pain tolerance longitudinally in the population. Our sample (n = 10,732; 51% women) was gathered from the sixth (Tromsø6, 2007–08) and seventh (Tromsø7, 2015–16) waves of the prospective population-based Tromsø Study, Norway. Level of leisure-time PA (sedentary, light, moderate, or vigorous) was derived from questionnaires; experimental pain tolerance was measured by the cold-pressor test (CPT). We used ordinary, and multiple-adjusted mixed, Tobit regression to assess 1) the effect of longitudinal PA change on CPT tolerance at follow-up, and 2) whether a change in pain tolerance over time varied with level of LTPA. We found that participants with high consistent PA levels over the two surveys (Tromsø6 and Tromsø7) had significantly higher tolerance than those staying sedentary (20.4 s. (95% CI: 13.7, 27.1)). Repeated measurements show that light (6.7 s. (CI 3.4, 10.0)), moderate (CI 14.1 s. (9.9, 18.3)), and vigorous (16.3 s. (CI 6.0, 26.5)) PA groups had higher pain tolerance than sedentary, with non-significant interaction showed slightly falling effects of PA over time. In conclusion, being physically active at either of two time points measured 7–8 years apart was associated with higher pain tolerance compared to being sedentary at both time-points. Pain tolerance increased with higher total activity levels, and more for those who increased their activity level during follow-up. This indicates that not only total PA amount matters but also the direction of change. PA did not significantly moderate pain tolerance change over time, though estimates suggested a slightly falling effect possibly due to ageing. These results support increased PA levels as a possible non-pharmacological pathway towards reducing or preventing chronic pain. |
author2 |
Russo, Luca Helse Nord RHF |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Årnes, Anders Pedersen Nielsen, Christopher Sievert Stubhaug, Audun Fjeld, Mats Kirkeby Johansen, Aslak Morseth, Bente Strand, Bjørn Heine Wilsgaard, Tom Steingrímsdóttir, Ólöf Anna |
spellingShingle |
Årnes, Anders Pedersen Nielsen, Christopher Sievert Stubhaug, Audun Fjeld, Mats Kirkeby Johansen, Aslak Morseth, Bente Strand, Bjørn Heine Wilsgaard, Tom Steingrímsdóttir, Ólöf Anna Longitudinal relationships between habitual physical activity and pain tolerance in the general population |
author_facet |
Årnes, Anders Pedersen Nielsen, Christopher Sievert Stubhaug, Audun Fjeld, Mats Kirkeby Johansen, Aslak Morseth, Bente Strand, Bjørn Heine Wilsgaard, Tom Steingrímsdóttir, Ólöf Anna |
author_sort |
Årnes, Anders Pedersen |
title |
Longitudinal relationships between habitual physical activity and pain tolerance in the general population |
title_short |
Longitudinal relationships between habitual physical activity and pain tolerance in the general population |
title_full |
Longitudinal relationships between habitual physical activity and pain tolerance in the general population |
title_fullStr |
Longitudinal relationships between habitual physical activity and pain tolerance in the general population |
title_full_unstemmed |
Longitudinal relationships between habitual physical activity and pain tolerance in the general population |
title_sort |
longitudinal relationships between habitual physical activity and pain tolerance in the general population |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285041 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285041 |
geographic |
Norway Tromsø |
geographic_facet |
Norway Tromsø |
genre |
Tromsø |
genre_facet |
Tromsø |
op_source |
PLOS ONE volume 18, issue 5, page e0285041 ISSN 1932-6203 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285041 |
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PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
e0285041 |
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1812181877549694976 |