Exploring the Relationship Between Different Pain Patterns and Depressive Symptom Among Older Koreans: Using Latent Growth Model

Jeong, Kyu-Hyoung; Son, Hye-Gyeong; Kim, Sunghee; Ryu, Ju Hyun; Lee, Seoyoon

doi:2025.22.4.382

Psychiatry Investig > Volume 22(4); 2025 > Article

Original Article

Psychiatry Investigation 2025;22(4):382-388.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2024.0166 Published online April 11, 2025.

Exploring the Relationship Between Different Pain Patterns and Depressive Symptom Among Older Koreans: Using Latent Growth Model

Kyu-Hyoung Jeong¹

, Hye-Gyeong Son²

, Sunghee Kim³

, Ju Hyun Ryu³

, Seoyoon Lee⁴

¹Department of Social Welfare, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea
²College of Nursing, Kosin University, Busan, Republic of Korea
³Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Social Welfare Policy, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
⁴Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States

Correspondence: Hye-Gyeong Son ,Tel: +82-51-990-3984, Fax: +82-51-990-3970, Email: hkprin@kosin.ac.kr

Received: May 15, 2024 Revised: July 24, 2024 Accepted: December 4, 2024 Published online: April 11, 2025

Abstract

Objective
The purpose of this study is to identify the types of pain changes that affect older Koreans, as well as their effects on depressive symptom.
Methods
We analyzed the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging data collected from 2010 to 2018. A data of total of 1,359 participants, aged 65 or older were used to estimate the change in pain. A latent growth model and growth mixture modeling were performed to estimate the overall change in pain and to categorize the types of pain changes.
Results
The pain changes of older adults were classified into two categories: low-stable and high increasing. The depressive symptom showed a stronger relationship among the high-increasing type of pain than the low-stable type. The high-increasing type had a higher percentage of females, lower income, relatively low educational attainment, and a higher percentage of rural residents than the low-stable type.
Conclusion
The significance of this study is that it reiterated the importance of early pain diagnosis and intervention by identifying the types of pain changes in older adults and analyzing their effects on depressive symptoms. Therefore, it is especially important to pay attention to interventions that are designed to help vulnerable groups with a high risk of pain obtain effective pain management.

Key words Pain; Depressive symptom; Aging; Korea