Daily mood and stress predict pain, health care use, and work activity in African American adults with sickle-cell disease.

This study examined the extent to which daily mood and stress were associated with pain, health care use, and work activity in 41 adults (mean age=36 years) with sickle-cell disease. Multilevel model analyses of daily diaries (M=91 days) indicated that increases in stress and negative mood were associated with increases in same-day pain, health care use, and work absences. Lagged models suggested bidirectional relationships, with evidence that pain may be the more powerful initiating variable in pain-mood and pain-stress cycles. Of importance, positive mood was associated with lower same-day and subsequent day pain, as well as fewer health care contacts, suggesting that positive mood may serve to offset negative consequences of pain and other illness symptoms. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)