Research Impact: Pain and psychiatric disorders are prevalent comorbidities for which physical activity is beneficial. Whether associations between physical activity (PA) and pain are mediated by psychiatric symptoms is understudied. We tested whether the severity of somatization, panic, generalized anxiety, and depression symptoms mediated relationships between PA and pain among 1036 young adult females using structural equation modeling. The percentage of the sample screening positive was 15.7% for generalized anxiety, 5.8% for panic, 11.0% for major depressive, and 16.0% for somatization. Each standard deviation increase in PA decreased the probability of pain by 11.0% through panic disorder and 10.7% through somatization disorder.
O’Connor PJ, Herring MP, McDowell CP, Dishman RK (2019). Physical activity is indirectly associated with pain in college women through associations with somatization and panic disorder symptoms. Annals of Epidemiology. doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2019.02.008. (IF: 2.804; C=; Q1 Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; R=44/181)
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