Gratitude and Well-Being in Older Adults with Chronic Pain: a Brief Gratitude Intervention Feasibility Study

Chronic pain is a health problem that disproportionately affects older adults and negatively impacts quality of life. Gratitude interventions have emerged as a promising approach to ameliorate the negative impact of pain and enhance well-being. Despite the high prevalence of older adults with chronic pain, there are no gratitude interventions among older adults with chronic pain. The current study utilized a two-week gratitude daily diary intervention in a sample of 38 older adults (M = 67.53 years) with chronic knee or hip pain to evaluate the effects of gratitude on well-being (Aim 1) and the effects of the intervention on changes in well-being (Aim 2) across the study. Participants were randomly assigned to either the gratitude group (n = 21) or the attention-matched control group (n = 17). Participants in the gratitude group wrote three things they were grateful for each day, while the attention-matched control did not journal. All participants completed pre- and post-intervention interviews and received 14 nightly phone calls, which allowed for "global" analyses using pre-and post-intervention data and "daily" analyses using nightly phone call data. The results of Aim 1 revealed that trait and state gratitude were significantly related to physical and mental well-being, controlling for age and income level. In Aim 2, no significant effects emerged for treatment group on global or daily changes in well-being in Aim 2. However, significant main effects emerged for time on global and daily well-being outcomes, indicating improvements in well-being across time, regardless of treatment condition. The impact of small sample size, COVID-19, and methodological limitations are discussed, and clinical implications and future directions for gratitude interventions focused on improving the well-being of older adults with chronic pain are provided.