Friendship in Later Life: How Friends Are Significant Resources in Older Persons’ Communication about Chronic Pain

Abstract

Background: This article focuses on how older persons perceive their friends’ role in their daily experience of chronic pain. It reports part of the results of a study in which we interviewed 49 participants, aged 75 and older, about the way they communicate about chronic pain within their social network. Methodology: Using discourse and content analysis, we first examine older persons’ definition of friendship, and then identify the various dimensions of friendship that are engaged in the communication about chronic pain. Results: Participants define close friends as people with whom they share intimacy and social proximity (same gender, age and experience of pain). These dimensions allow older persons to talk freely about their pain without the fear of being judged or rejected, particularly when it is related to a dynamic of reciprocity. Conclusions: This article shows that the contribution of friends to the everyday life of older persons with chronic pain is mainly that of providing emotional support.