TY - JOUR T1 - Pain among older Hispanics in the United States: is acculturation associated with pain? JF - Pain Med Y1 - 2013 A1 - Jimenez, Nathalia A1 - Dansie, Elizabeth A1 - Buchwald, Dedra A1 - Goldberg, Jack KW - Acculturation KW - Aged KW - Confidence Intervals KW - Cross-Sectional Studies KW - Female KW - Health Status KW - Hispanic or Latino KW - Humans KW - Language KW - Logistic Models KW - Male KW - Middle Aged KW - Odds Ratio KW - pain KW - Pain Measurement KW - Prevalence KW - Socioeconomic factors KW - United States AB -

BACKGROUND: Previous studies suggest that acculturation may influence the experience of pain.

STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a cross-sectional study to estimate the association between acculturation and the prevalence, intensity, and functional limitations of pain in older Hispanic adults in the United States.

METHODS SUBJECTS: Participants were English- (HE) and Spanish-speaking (HS) Hispanic and non-Hispanic White (NHW) individuals aged 50 years and older who were interviewed for the Health and Retirement Study during 1998-2008.

MEASURES: We measured: 1) acculturation as defined by language used in interviews, and 2) the presence, intensity, and functional limitations of pain.

ANALYSIS: We applied logistic regression using generalized estimating equations, with NHW as the reference category.

RESULTS: Among 18,593 participants (16,733 NHW, 824 HE, and 1,036 HS), HS had the highest prevalence (odds ratio [OR] = 1.3; 95% confidence interval [CI  = 1.1-1.4) and intensity (OR = 1.6; 95% CI = 1.4-1.9) of pain, but these differences were not significant after adjusting for age, sex, years of education, immigration status (U.S.- vs non-U.S-born), and health status (number of health conditions). Even after adjustment, HS reported the lowest levels of functional limitation (OR = 0.7; 95% CI 0.6-0.9).

CONCLUSION: Pain prevalence and intensity were not related to acculturation after adjusting for sociodemographic factors, while functional limitation was significantly lower among HS even after adjusting for known risk factors. Future studies should explore the reasons for this difference.

PB - 14 VL - 14 UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23718576 IS - 8 N1 - Times Cited: 0 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23718576?dopt=Abstract U2 - PMC3748254 U4 - Acculturation/Language/Older Hispanics/Hispanic ER -