Papers of the Week

This study examined the associations between psychological inflexibility (PI) and physical disability (PD) among older patients with chronic low back and knee pain. Pain avoidance and cognitive fusion were assessed in outpatients as components of PI and PD, and sociodemographic and pain-related variables were used as covariates. Hierarchical multiple linear regression was used. The covariates were first entered, followed by PI. Age and pain intensity had significant positive associations with PD. After adding PI, only pain avoidance was significantly and positively associated with PD. Focusing on pain avoidance may be effective for physical disability when acceptance and commitment therapy is administered to older patients with chronic low back and knee pain.