The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of anxiety at 13 years of age on the presence of
chronic pain,
pain-related anxiety, and
pain-related disability
at 17 years of age in a large longitudinal cohort. We hypothesized that mother-reported anxiety at 13 would be associated with the presence of
chronic pain at 17 and an increase in
pain-related anxiety using all available data from the longitudinal cohort. Further, we hypothesized that anxiety at 13 would predict
pain-related disability in adolescents who reported
chronic pain at 17 years of age. Participants were recruited from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children based in the UK who attended a university research clinic
at 17. Child anxiety (reported by the mother) was extracted at child age 13, and self-report of the presence of
chronic pain,
pain-related anxiety, and
pain-related disability
at 17. Analyses revealed that child anxiety at 13 was not significantly associated with the presence of
chronic pain at 17 (n = 842). However, anxiety at 13 was significantly associated with
pain-related anxiety
at 17 (n = 1831). For the subsample of adolescents who reported
chronic pain, anxiety at 13 was associated with
pain-related disability
at 17 (n = 393). Further analyses revealed that
pain-related anxiety
at 17 mediated the association between anxiety at 13 and
pain-related disability
at 17, suggesting that
pain-related anxiety should be a target for treatment in adolescents with
chronic pain, to reduce the impact of
pain in later adolescence. General anxiety at 13 was unrelated to the presence of
chronic pain at 17, but should be considered a risk factor for later
pain-related anxiety and disability in a subset of adolescents who develop
chronic pain.