Pain characteristics and progression to sarcopenia in Chinese middle-aged and older adults: a 4-year longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: It is imperative for public health to identify the factors that contribute to the progression of sarcopenia among middle-aged and older adults. Our study aimed to investigate the association between pain characteristics and the progression to sarcopenia and its subcomponents among middle-aged and older adults in China.

METHODS: We included 5568 participants from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). All participants completed assessments for pain characteristics and sarcopenia. Pain assessment included pain status (baseline pain, incident pain, pain persistence) and pain distribution (single-site pain and multisite pain) using a self-report questionnaire. Diagnosis of sarcopenia followed The Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) 2019 consensus. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were obtained by logical regression analysis.

RESULTS: Participants who reported baseline pain, multisite pain, pain persistence, or multisite pain persistence were more likely to progress to sarcopenia than those without pain, with ORs of 1.33 (95% CI: 1.08-1.65), 1.44 (95% CI: 1.15-1.80), 1.63 (95% CI: 1.23-2.14), and 1.59 (95% CI: 1.19-2.11), respectively. Even after adjusting for other covariates such as gender, age, residential area, education level, marital status, smoking, alcohol consumption, co-morbidities, and falls, these associations remained significant. Additionally, pain persistence and multisite pain persistence were significantly associated with low grip strength and clinically meaningful Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) decline, but not with low muscle mass.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that pain, especially pain persistence, was closely correlated to the increased risk of progression to sarcopenia in Chinese middle-aged and older adults.