To investigate the impact of cognitive impairment on movement-related pain in older adults during everyday motor tasks.
Approach:
Key Findings:
Cognitively impaired participants reported significantly higher movement-related pain during motor tasks.
No differences in baseline clinical pain or experimental pain sensitivity were found between groups.
Cognitive status explained additional variance in movement-related pain beyond clinical pain and experimental pain sensitivity.
Interpretation:
Reduced cognitive functioning significantly predicted increased pain during active, everyday motor tasks, potentially due to compromised recall, planning, and execution of pain-minimizing strategies.
Limitations:
The study's sample size may limit the generalizability of the findings.
Participants were excluded if they had major neurological or psychological disorders, which may affect the results.
Conclusion:
Assessing pain in behaviorally relevant contexts is crucial for understanding pain mechanisms in cognitively impaired older adults.
