# Life satisfaction and chronic musculoskeletal pain at the baseline of ELSA-Brasil MSK

## TL;DR

Higher life satisfaction is linked to a lower risk of chronic musculoskeletal pain, especially more severe cases.

## Contribution

This study reveals a novel association between life satisfaction and the severity of chronic musculoskeletal pain in a large Brazilian cohort.

## Key findings

- Greater life satisfaction was associated with lower odds of chronic musculoskeletal pain.
- The association was stronger for disabling and troublesome pain compared to non-disabling and non-troublesome pain.
- Multisite and generalized pain showed stronger inverse associations with life satisfaction.

## Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between life satisfaction and the presence and severity of chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP).

In this cross-sectional study, a total of 2,756 participants (mean age: 55.8 years, standard deviation [SD]=8.9 years) at the baseline of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health Musculoskeletal cohort (2012-2014) completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale and were assessed for CMP (duration>6 months) at neck, shoulders, upper back, elbows, lower back, wrists/hands, hips/thighs, knees, and ankles/feet. CMP phenotypes were identified based on measures that considered pain-related disability (non-disabling/disabling), pain demand for a healthcare professional (non-troublesome/troublesome), and body pain spreading according to the number of sites (0, 1-2, and ≥3, multisite) and the number of regions (upper limbs, lower limbs, and axial skeleton) affected (0, 1-2, 3, generalized). The association of life satisfaction with CMP and each CMP phenotype was investigated by binomial and multinomial logistic regression analyses adjusted for sociodemographic lifestyle and clinical confounders.

Greater life satisfaction was associated with lower chances of CMP (odds ratio [OR]=0.95; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.94-0.97), as well as across all CMP phenotypes. The strength of this association was slightly greater for disabling CMP (OR=0.94; 95%CI 0.92-0.96) compared to non-disabling CMP (OR=0.97; 95%CI 0.95-0.99), and for troublesome CMP (OR=0.96; 95%CI 0.94-0.97) compared to non-troublesome CMP (OR=0.94; 95%CI 0.94-0.98). This association also held true when considering individuals experiencing multisite pain (OR=0.93; 95%CI 0.91-0.95) compared to those with pain at 1-2 sites (OR=0.97; 95%CI 0.95-0.99), and considering generalized pain (OR=0.93; 95%CI 0.90-0.96) compared to pain in 1-2 regions (OR=0.96; 95%CI 0.95-0.98).

Greater life satisfaction seems to decrease the chances of experiencing any, and especially more severe, CMP.