Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between pain and health status, mobility and daily life activities in communityliving individuals at age of 65 years old or over.

Materials and Method: One hundred and four individuals at the age of 65 years old or older were included in the study. Educational level, marital status, presence of chronic diseases, and assistive devices used for walking were recorded as demographical data. In order to evaluate general health status, pain, mobility level, level in activities of daily living and the level of functional independence, the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Physical Mobility Scale (PMS) and the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) were used, respectively.

Results: The average age of the participants was found as 72.27±5.99 years. Fifty seven (54.8%) of the participants reported pain, whereas 47 (45.2%) had no complaints of pain. Significant differences were found in terms of gender, educational level, marital status, presence of chronic pain, and assistive device utilization between the participants who reported pain and those without pain (p<0.05). A negative correlation was observed between VAS and HAQ scores (p<0.05), however, there were no correlations between VAS and FIM as well as between VAS and FMS scores (p>0.05).

Conclusion: In this study, it was observed that pain, in accordance with increasing health problems and decreasing activity level, is a frequently encountered problem that is negatively correlated to health status which, in return, may negatively affect activity level in daily life and mobility in older people. Thus, questioning and evaluating the presence of pain may help to promote health status in older people.