John Henryism-racial stressors among older black men with low back pain.
Dottington Fullwood, Elizabeth Fallon, Sydney Means and 4 others
PMID 39029256WHAT IT FOUND
For older Black men with chronic low back pain, neither high-effort coping nor pain catastrophizing had a clear link to measured back performance.
Higher high-effort coping was linked to lower self-reported pain, while higher catastrophizing was linked to higher pain.
Key findings
01Higher John Henryism active coping was associated with lower self-reported pain intensity, and higher pain catastrophizing was associated with higher self-reported pain intensity.
02Neither John Henryism active coping nor pain catastrophizing was significantly associated with measured functional performance.
03Age did not significantly moderate the relationships between either coping measure and pain or functional performance.
STILL TO COME
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional and single visit, so it cannot show that coping causes lower pain or that catastrophizing causes higher pain. The analysed sample was 57 men, and the paper says power to detect associations was limited. The sample was below the 120 participants recommended for the statistical model used. All participants were older Black men not seeking healthcare from one area of Jacksonville, Florida, so results may not apply to other Black men or to people in clinical care. Participants had chronic low back pain but continued to move through daily life, which may differ from patients presenting for care.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not state author conflicts of interest. The publication types list research support from NIH extramural and non-U.S. government sources.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the pain associations as proof that high-effort coping lowers pain or that catastrophizing raises pain. This was a single-visit cross-sectional study, and neither coping measure was significantly linked to measured back performance.