Beliefs about pain control and the evaluation of the patient’s state after hip replacement

Introduction: Pain caused by degenerative changes and changes deforming hip-joints is a common reason for limitation of patients’ motor fitness. It is thought that the only way of treatment, which brings good results, is surgery, which leads to the reconstruction of the whole joint.

Aim of the study: Evaluation of motor fitness after hip replacement and evaluation of pain occurrence and patients’ beliefs about controlling the pain.

Material and methods 50 people (19 men and 31 women) underwent the test after total hip arthroplasty. The research tool was a questionnaire and standardized questionnaire of pain control beliefs – BPCQ.

Results: Health improvement in comparison to the state before the surgery was stated by 80% of the people tested (very big improvement by 6 people (12%) and big improvement – 34 people (68%)). All of the respondents felt pain before the surgery with different intensity (56% – moderate pain, 30% – strong pain, 6% – enormous pain). The difference in pain intensity before and after the surgery is not statistically important (p = 0.58). The lower average point values obtained by people living in the country relating to pain control in relation to internal factors (W: 19.3 ±4.64 points) and the influence of random events (P: 16.60 ±4.27 points) significantly differ from these obtained by people living in the city (W: 23.05 ±37.3 points; P: 19.55 ±2.19 points).

Conclusions

1. The vast majority of people tested claim health improvement after the surgery.

2. Differences in pain intensity after the surgery were not significant.

3. People living in the country claim a significantly weaker belief of the influence of personal factors and coincidence on pain than people living in the city.