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The Problems of Pain and Its Detection among Geriatric Nursing Home Residents
Author(s) -
Sengstaken Elizabeth A.,
King Steven A.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1993.tb01892.x
Subject(s) - medicine , nursing homes , dementia , medical diagnosis , geriatrics , cohort , family medicine , nursing , psychiatry , disease , pathology
Objective To assess physicians' detection of pain among geriatric nursing home residents and to determine if there are factors that may interfere with their ability to do this. Design Chart review and patient interview. Setting Geriatric nursing home. Participants One hundred nursing home residents age 65 or older. Seventy‐six were communicative. Measurements Demographic information, diagnoses, and medication use were compared for several groups of residents to determine their effects on the detection of pain. Results Sixty‐six percent of the communicative residents were identified as having chronic pain. Treating physicians did not detect this problem in 34% of these residents. Those whose pain was not so identified were more likely to have a neurologic disorder other than dementia. When non‐communicative residents were compared with those who were communicative, the physicians were found to have identified pain less frequently in the former cohort. Conclusions Chronic pain is a common problem among geriatric nursing home residents and is frequently undetected. Identification of this problem among communicative residents may be markedly improved by direct questioning about this problem at frequent intervals. New methods of assessing pain need to be created to assist in its detection among the non‐communicative population.