Relationships between psychological, sleep, and physical activity measures and somatosensory function in people with peripheral joint pain: a systematic review and metaanalysis.

OBJECTIVE Alteration in somatosensory function has been linked to pain experience in individuals with joint pain. This systematic review aimed to establish the level of evidence of associations between psychological, social, physical activity, and sleep measures andsomatosensory function that assessed via quantitative sensory testing (QST) among individuals withjoint pain. METHODS A comprehensive literature search was conducted in six electronic databases from their inception to July 2019. Two reviewers independently assessed the methodological quality using a modified QUIPS tool and supplemented with recommendations from CHARMS checklist and QUADAS-2 tool. The level of evidence was assessed using the GRADE system.Data were pooled to evaluate the strength of the relationships of interest. RESULTS Seventeen studies related to joint painwere included.Pain catastrophizing, depression, anxiety, and physical activity level have been shown to have a significant(small to fair)associations with several QST measures. Pressure pain thershould (PPT) is the only measure that found to be consistently correlated with all the domains.The overall quality of evidencefor all factorsranged from 'very low' to 'moderate'. Subgroup analysis revealed a stronger associationfor depression and pain catastrophizingand PPT and temporal pain summationin individuals with shoulder pain. CONCLUSION Psychological factorsand physical activity levelsare associated with somatosensory function in people with joint pain. These factors need to be adjusted when establishing predictive relationships between somatosensory function and pain outcomes in individuals with joint pain.