Published on: Dec 03, 2025
A new study from UB researchers offers important new insight into the relationship between chronic pain and cognitive functioning in middle-aged and older adults.
According to findings published in the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, simply having chronic pain does not appear to predict poorer cognition. Instead, experiencing pain in multiple body sites is strongly linked to a faster decline in memory, reasoning, and attention later in life.
Multisite pain is common, often arising from conditions such as fibromyalgia, lupus, hypothyroidism, or diabetes. However, the study emphasizes that the number of pain sites matters—regardless of the underlying diagnosis.
By examining psychosocial factors in addition to biological mechanisms, the research reframes how pain and aging interact. It also shows how widespread pain can disrupt daily functioning and negatively affect relationships, mood, and overall well-being, explains Chang Yu, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and Criminology.
As Yu notes, asking the right question in a clinical context is crucial:
Instead of asking patients ‘Do you have pain?’ clinicians should ask ‘How widespread is the pain
She points out that nearly 40% of Americans with chronic pain report pain in three or more body areas—a group that may face an elevated risk of cognitive decline with age.
The team analyzed data from the 2004–06 and 2013–17 waves of the Midlife in the United States Study, a long-running national survey tracking age-related health changes among adults ages 25–74.
The research was conducted by Yu, along with associate professors Ashley Barr and Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk, and UB alumna Yulin Yang, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. The team examined how the presence and number of pain sites influenced interference with daily activities, mood, relationships, sleep, and enjoyment of life.
The study suggests that cognitive and behavioral strategies—such as improving social engagement, mood management, and activity planning—may help reduce the negative impact of pain on daily life and support cognitive health in mid- to late life.
Our findings encourage health systems and public health agencies to incorporate multisite pain screening into aging and dementia-risk assessments. This would allow clinicians to track where pain occurs and how it shapes the social factors that influence health.
Yu adds that future research should continue to explore how both the number and distribution of pain sites affect cognitive function over time.
Advancing this work will help us understand not only how multisite pain affects cognition, but also how it influences the pace of cognitive decline
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