The Coexistence of Hypertension and Arthritis Was Not Associated with Pain Severity in Community-Dwelling Older Adults in the United States

Background and Aim: Current evidence suggests that both arthritis and hypertension (HTN) can contribute to an increase in pain severity, potentially owing to shared pathophysiological pathways. However, the extent to which these conditions jointly affect pain severity has not been well studied. The aim of this study was to explore the association between the coexistence of HTN and arthritis and their impact on pain severity among community-dwelling older adults. Methods: A cross-sectional design was used. Data from the Wave 2 (2010-2011) of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) were used. Participants were community-dwelling older adults and categorized based on self-reported diagnoses into four groups: combined HTN and arthritis, HTN only, arthritis only, and neither. Pain severity was measured using the Verbal Descriptor Scale (VDS). Multiple generalized linear regression analyses were conducted with adjustments for age, sex, race, body mass index, educational level, and the use of pain and hypertension medications. Results: Data for 1754 participants were analyzed. The prevalence of combined HTN and arthritis was 28.4%. The prevalence of HTN only and arthritis only was 35.2% and 14.2%, respectively. Participants with both HTN and arthritis had higher pain severity compared to those with neither or only one of these conditions. After covariate adjustment, the combined HTN and arthritis group showed a significant association with higher pain severity (B = 0.39, p < 0.001). Similarly, the arthritis-only group also demonstrated a significant association with increased pain severity (B = 0.26, p = 0.002). However, the HTN alone showed no significant associations with pain severity (B = 0.014, p = 0.83). Compared to the arthritis-only group, combined HTN and arthritis showed a significant association with pain severity (B = 0.16, p = 0.049) in an unadjusted model only, and this association disappeared after adjusting for covariates (B = 0.15, p = 0.08). Conclusions: This study found no significant association between coexisting HTN and arthritis compared to arthritis alone after adjusting for covariates among community-dwelling older adults. The influence of covariates highlights the multifaceted nature of pain determinants, which emphasize the need for a multidisciplinary approach to pain management to enhance their functional capacity and overall quality of life.