According to a new study, back pain in older men can lead to worsening sleep later in life, with people with back pain in particular more likely to develop sleep problems over time.
The study, published in the journal Innovation in agingshed light on data from the long-term Study of Osteoporotic Features in Men (MrOS), which follows older men to determine how they age and develop chronic conditions.
Researchers analyzed data from 1,055 older men who underwent clinical sleep assessments six or more years apart. Meanwhile, participants completed questionnaires every four months about the severity and frequency of their back pain throughout the sleep study cycle.
Their analysis found that back pain predicted 12 to 25 percent of sleep problems in men six years later.
Soomi Lee, associate professor of human development and family studies at Penn State University, said: “We looked at data collected over several years to understand whether poor sleep can predict back pain or sleep can predict poor sleep.”
The researchers noted that the findings are based on observational data from older men; results may not apply equally to women and more diverse populations.
Good sleep is essential because it is strongly linked to better physical health and a lower mortality risk. Recent studies have shown that people with chronic insomnia, where they have trouble sleeping for three months or more, are 40 percent more likely to develop dementia than people who sleep normally.
