Evaluation of Chronic Pain and Affecting Factors in the Elderly

Abstract

Objective: Diseases are more seen in the elderly population, therefore pain also gains a severe probleme in this situation. It is well known that pain impairs significantly the quality of life and gives raise to an increase use of drugs. The aim of our study is to determine the severity of chronic pain in the eldely and to evaluate the conditions affecting chronic pain.

Methods: We included 456 elderly patients in our study. The mean age was 71.19±6.27 (min: 65; max: 93). Patient’s sociodemografic information, diseases, use of medications, presence of chronic pain, affecting conditions and treatment applied for chronic pain, and Geriatric Pain Scale were evaluated.

Results: The females integrated in tis study were 272 with a rate of 59.6 %. Regarding the geiatric pain scale 61.2 % (n: 279) had a mild pain while the other 18.6% (n: 85) had severe pain. The 87.7% were in medication of analgesics for their chronic pain. The patient’s knowledge of the used of medications was with a rate of 43.9% (n: 200). We founded a statistically significant relationship between the chronic pain and femele gender (p<0.001), older age (p=0.012), smoking users (p=0.01), nonsteroidal antiinflamatory drug users (p=0.003) and inidviduals with higher mass body index (p=0.016).

Conclusion: Chronic pain in the elderly is a common complaint. The presence of pain disrupts the quality of life and puts additional burdens on the healthcare system. Detecting preventable situations that cause pain and increases severity, giving importance to non-drug treatments, increasing health literacy about the drugs used, implementing effective policies against diseases will reduce the severity of chronic pain, increasing the quality of life and significantly reducing health costs.