Pain Prevalence in a French Teaching Hospital

Abstract

To measure the prevalence and intensity of pain in hospitalized patients and to assess the quality of pain management, an exhaustive cross-sectional study was conducted in every department in a university hospital. Patients hospitalized for 24 hours or more completed an anonymous self-report questionnaire. Among the 1,475 inpatients, 998 completed the questionnaire. During the 24-hour period prior to our survey, 55% experienced pain. On 100 mm pain intensity measures, the median maximum pain experienced in the 24 preceding hours was 60 mm and the median pain intensity at the time of the survey was 30 mm. Although pain measured at the time of survey disappeared in only 16% of patients, 79% were satisfied with pain management. Despite a high satisfaction level, the prevalence and intensity of pain were very high. This study provided baseline data on pain in a French hospital and led to the implementation of a program for improving pain management.

Prevalência e características de dor em pacientes internados em hospital português

“…Even with pointed pain prevalence, the vast majority of patients were still happy with their treatment. This result is consistent with other studies 7,8,14,20 . Patients easily accept distress and pain associated to surgery and hospitalization.…”

“…Although within the values presented by other studies 7,8,[10][11][12][13][14]17 , the fact that 24 hours later there were still 41.1% with pain means that virtually one out of two patients have pain, and that more might be done for their treatment. With regard to severe pain according to the visual analog scale (VAS) at interview time, only two patients have referred it.…”

“…So, they are one of the first assistance improvement measures to decrease pain. Results prompt to this subject and lead institutions to adopt strategies aiming at decreasing pain 8 . Reviewing the literature, it is possible to observe that there are several studies on intra-hospital pain prevalence.…”

“…Table 1 summarizes some results obtained from different hospitals worldwide to establish an overview. Although much has been done to improve pain management, referred studies point to a prevalence of pain during the interviews of 43 to 84%, and severe pain within 24 hours may reach 42% [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] . True comparisons are difficult due to variations on samples, methods and structure of the studies, but it is possible to make a global analysis and to notice that, no matter how much is published about pain, prevalence is kept high along the years.…”

Pharmacovigilance of the Analgesic Therapy

“…These are not only essential factors for pain management itself, but this could also lead to the consideration of possible adverse drug reactions (ADRs) from analgesic use. Indeed, when implementing pain relief management, one must consider the best practice to alleviate pain directly, along with the possibility of having ADRs which would then defeat the purpose of analgesics use itself [5][6][7][8]. Additionally, chronic pain is associated with an increased incidence of mental health issues such as anxiety and depression [9]; thus, there is a need to extend the consequences of inefficient pain relief beyond pain management alone.…”