Abstract
This study investigated the psychosocial factors affecting the quality of life (QOL) of 171 individuals with chronic pain. Participants completed a battery of self-rated inventories measuring three sets of predictor variables—demographic (age, gender, income, marital status), pain-specific (chronicity, severity, duration, frequency, pain impairment), and psychosocial (interference, social support, depression, coping)—and one criterion variable with five models (physical, psychological, social, environmental, total). Hierarchical multiple regression indicates that income predicts the psychological and environmental domains of QOL. Across all five models, 56% to 76% of the variance was accounted for with the three sets of variables. Demographics remained minimally predictive of all models. Pain impairment was predictive of all five models. Depression was predictive of all but physical QOL, and coping was predictive of all but physical and environmental QOL. The pain impairment variable and the two psychosocial variables (depression and coping) remained imperative in predicting QOL of individuals with chronic pain.
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