Prevalence of and factors related to pain among elderly Japanese residents in long‐term healthcare facilities

Abstract

Nearly half of the residents suffered from pain on movement. The pain of these elderly residents should be managed in order to improve their health status.

Differences between Nurses' and Care Workers' Estimations of Pain Prevalence among Older Residents

“…However, care workers' estimations of the prevalence of pain and chronic pain among residents were significantly higher than those of nurses. The prevalence of residents' self-reported pain has been found to be 60% to 80% in previous studies of long-term care residents (van Herk et al, 2009), while proxy reports place the prevalence at around 50% Zwakhalen, Koopmans, Geels, Berger, & Hamers, 2009); thus, care workers' estimations might be relatively closer to residents' self-reported pain prevalence, despite the low estimations found in the current study. Both nurses and care workers in this study generally did not use tools or scales to support their pain assessment, which potentially caused these low estimations.…”

“…Thus, it is important for nurses to appropriately comprehend and efficiently assess residents' pain status. Additionally, those nurses who employed a multidisciplinary approach, considered to be relatively important to aged care (Takemura et al, 2002), had a higher estimation of the prevalence of pain than did nurses who did not. Collaboration between nurses and care workers at aged care facilities may be necessary, as this would allow sufficient sharing and discussion of residents' pain status.…”

“…Care workers are normally involved with direct care related to residents' daily living, and thus may have been more likely to encounter residents complaining of pain. Although the nurses may have had limited accessibility to the residents, they were responsible for providing medical treatment support, the administration of medication, monitoring residents' health status, and ensuring appropriate documentation (Takemura, Kanda, Matsumoto, & Yamagishi, 2002). Thus, it is important for nurses to appropriately comprehend and efficiently assess residents' pain status.…”

“…Older residents are sometimes reluctant to report their pain to health care staff as a result of stoicism (Hadjistavropoulos, Fitzgerald, & Marchildon, 2010). Japanese older residents have noted that they did not always report their pain to staff; they also believed the pain to be a part of the aging process (Takai, Yamamoto-Mitani, & Ko, 2013). Furthermore, older residents often are unable to report their pain to staff due to physical disability or cognitive impairment (AGS Panel on Persistent Pain in Older Persons, 2002;Takai et al, 2010).…”

Comparing Two Scales: FPS-R and NRS for Pain Measurement in Elderly Bedridden Population of Hamadan-Iran

“…b NRS contains both even and odds numbers, but FPS-R has only even numbers. and between self reported pain reasons, mental health issues had the greatest portion (OR: 9.18, 95%CI 1.27 -66.52) (16). Measuring pain intensity using the FPS-R scale showed that most participants (80%) had moderate to severe pain, which means they assigned the score of 6 or more to their pain severity.…”