Fear of Pain Across the Adult Life Span

Pain continues to be an important public health concern, especially given the opioid crisis in industrialized countries. It is important to understand the association between emotions such as fear and anxiety and the experience of pain as both a physiological and affective experience. Fear or anxiety about pain is in fact a well-known predictor of and close associate of pain. Nociception and pain history differ depending on age, yet little empirical evidence exists on how fear of pain varies over the life span. The purpose of this study was to provide a cross-sectional examination of the relations between age and fear of pain across the adult life span.

Using cross-sectional data from 4,122 participants who completed the Fear of Pain Questionnaire-9, structural equation modeling and regression techniques were used to examine the association between fear of pain and age.

A positive linear association was discovered between age and fear of severe or minor pain, and a negative association was discovered between age and fear of medical or dental pain. Quadratic and cubic relations were also significant for fear of severe pain, fear of medical and dental pain, and overall fear of pain, but not for fear of minor pain.

Unique trajectories for different components of pain-related fear exist across the adult life span and may be affected by increased exposure to medical and dental experiences over time and by the awareness of a greater likelihood of experiencing pain later in the life span.