Widespread musculoskeletal pain disorders like fibromyalgia are often accompanied by varying levels of cognitive dysfunction. Fibromyalgia research suggests that around the time of diagnosis, typically 30-50 years of age, many patients are already showing cognitive difficulties on various neuropsychological assessments. It is unknown, however, how older adults with fibromyalgia perform on rapid cognitive screeners in clinical settings. The present study compared older adults with and without fibromyalgia on a digitized version of a classic neuropsychological screener, the clock drawing test.

Participants aged 65+ were recruited as part of a larger IRB-approved and federally funded investigation within the preoperative surgical center at the University of Florida (UF) and UF Health. Participant data were obtained with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) waiver and honest broker medical extraction from January 2018 to December 2019 (N=14,807). Based on medical record diagnostic code, participants were categorized into fibromyalgia or non-fibromyalgia groups, then propensity score matched based on age, ethnicity, race, sex, and years of education. The final sample contained 718 older adults (mean age= 71.3±4.89, education years= 13.7±2.62, female= 98.1%, white= 87.9%) (n=359 in each group). All participants completed the command and copy condition of the digital Clock Drawing Test (dCDT). Variables of interest for both conditions included: total completion time (TCT), pre-first hand latency (PFHL), clock face area (CFA), and digit misplacement. These variables were chosen to represent two latency and two graphomotor variables. A natural log transformation was applied to all dCDT variables to achieve normality of the distribution.

We confirmed that there was no significant group difference in age, ethnicity, race, sex, and years of education following the propensity match. Fibromyalgia patients had higher comorbidity scores on American Society of Anesthesiologists Classification (ASA) (p= 0.003). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a significant group difference in TCT for both command [F(1,637)= 5.13, p= 0.024, d=0.178] and copy conditions [F(1,466)= 4.03, p= 0.045, d=0.179j. Controlling for ASA, a repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed that groups still differed in TCT in the command condition [F(1,630)= 4.21, p= 0.041, n2= 0.007; Fibromyalgia > Non-Fibromyalgia], but not in the copy condition.

In our sample, older adults with fibromyalgia showed slower TCT to command by approximately three seconds compared to non-fibromyalgia peers. Since TCT to command taps into multiple domains of cognitive functioning, our results are consistent with previous work demonstrating poorer performance across many cognitive domains in fibromyalgia. Future research should continue investigating digital cognitive assessments to identify older adults with fibromyalgia who may be at higher risk for cognitive change. Data acquired through NIH R01 AG055337.