Early life factors associated with the experiences of pain in later life: evidence from a population based study in India

Abstract

Background The influence of early life factors is becoming increasingly apparent as studies investigate how experiences, resources, and constraints in childhood affect health and well-being later in life. The present study contributes to this literature by examining the association between several early life factors and self-reported pain among older adults in India. Methods Data come from the 2017-18 wave 1 of the Longitudinal Ageing Study of India (LASI). The sample size includes 28,050 older adults aged 60 and above (13,509 men and 14,541 women). Pain is a self-reported, dichotomous measure where participants responded to whether they were often troubled with pain and whether this experience interfered with their ability to carry out daily household chores. Early life factors, which are retrospective accounts of experiences, included the respondent’s position in birth order, their health status, school absenteeism, being bedridden, family socioeconomic status (SES), and their parent’s experience with chronic disease. Logistic regression analysis is employed to examine the unadjusted and adjusted average marginal effects (AME) of selected domains of early life factors associated with the probability of experiencing pain. Results 22.8% of men and 32.3% of women reported pain that interfered with daily activities. Pain was higher among men (AME: 0.01, confidence interval (CI): 0.01–0.03) and women (AME: 0.02, CI: 0.01–0.04) with third or fourth birth order compared to counterparts with first birth order. Both men (AME: -0.02, CI: -0.04–0.01) and women (AME: -0.07, CI: -0.09 - -0.04) having a fair childhood health status reported a lower probability of pain. The probability of pain was higher among both men (AME: 0.03, CI: 0.01–0.07) and women (AME: 0.07, CI: 0.03–0.13) who were bedridden due to sickness in their childhood. Similarly, the pain likelihood was higher among men who missed school for more than a month due to health problems (AME: 0.04, CI: -0.01-0.09). Men and women with poor financial condition in their childhood reported (AME: 0.04, CI: 0.01–0.07) a higher probability of experiencing pain relative to their peers who reported a more financially advantaged early life. Conclusions Findings of the present study add to the empirical literature on the association between early life factors and later life health and well-being. They also are pertinent to health care providers and practitioners working in pain management, as this knowledge better positions them to identify older adults most susceptible to pain. Moreover, findings of our study underscore that the interventions to ensure health and well-being in later life must start far earlier in the life course.

Pain mechanisms in the transgender individual: a review

“…As reviewed in this manuscript, there is evidence for the influence of hormones ( 391 , 392 ), sex chromosome complement ( 393 ), and early life experience ( 394 – 397 ) in the pain phenotype expressed in human variables that are evident and controllable in the preclinical models ( Supplementary Figure S1 ). Given the limitations posed by the study of experimental variables in humans vs. animals, we cannot discern how the impact of these variables on the human experience is impacted by each individual's sex characteristics or gender expectations.…”

“…The influence of development environment on brain connectivity and function extends beyond issues of sex and gender. In humans, early life stressors can markedly influence psychosocial reactivity, pain sensitivity and pain experience later in life (394)(395)(396)(397). Higher socioeconomic status shows covariance of efficient cortical networks in adulthood with effects varying with early age of exposure (413).…”