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. 2013 Sep;154(9):1725-1731.
doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2013.05.020.

The impact of daily arthritis pain on spouse sleep

Lynn M Martire  1 , Francis J Keefe, Richard Schulz, Mary Ann Parris Stephens, Jacqueline A Mogle
Affiliations

The impact of daily arthritis pain on spouse sleep

Lynn M Martire et al. Pain. 2013 Sep.

Abstract

Although chronic pain has been linked to poorer psychosocial well-being in the spouse, the extent to which patient pain affects spouse sleep is unknown. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that greater daily knee pain would be associated with poorer sleep for the spouse that evening. We also tested the hypothesis that this pain contagion is exacerbated in couples who have a close relationship. A total of 138 knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients and their spouses completed baseline interviews and a 22-day diary assessment. Multilevel lagged models indicated that greater knee OA pain at the end of the day was associated with spouses' poorer overall sleep quality that night and feeling less refreshed after sleep. In contrast, there was no evidence that spouse sleep was related to greater patient pain the next day. The effects of patient pain on spouse sleep were not due to disturbances in patient sleep and were also independent of spouse sex, depressive symptoms, and physical comorbidities; both partners' negative affect; and the quality of marital interactions throughout the day. As predicted, we also found that patient pain was more strongly related to less refreshing sleep for spouses who were in a close relationship. Findings illustrate that chronic pain may place the spouse's health at risk and suggest an important target for couple-oriented interventions.

Keywords: Daily; Electronic diary; Knee pain; Sleep; Spouse.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The moderating effect of couple closeness for spouse refreshing sleep. Estimated values are presented for the within-couple association between patient knee pain and spouse sleep for couples with high or low closeness, at three levels of patient pain on the previous day (i.e., a patient’s average and one point above/below their average).
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