Medical and psychosocial conditioning of pain in individuals over 60 years of age

Background. Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience. Pain perception is influenced by biological, psychological and sociological factors.

Objectives. Analysis of occurrence of pain in the context of bio-psycho-social condition of individuals who are over 60 years of age.

Material and methods. The study included 296 inhabitants of Szczecin over the age of 60. AIS, SWLS , Inventory to Measure

Coping Strategies with Stress Mini-COPE, VAS scale to assess the intensity of pain and an authorial questionnaire were used.

Results. 60.14% of respondents experienced pain within one week prior to filling out the questionnaire. Low intensity pain occurred in 34.81% respondents, moderate was experienced by 28.65%, and severe – 36.52%. Among the respondents with high acceptance of disease the lowest percentage of individuals experiencing pain within one week prior to the questionnaire was noted. Among the individuals who did not experience pain a higher level of life satisfaction was noted in comparison to individuals who experienced any pain (0.00%; χ² = 9.17; p = 0.010). Pain significantly contributed to respondents employing the strategy of turning to religion (69.3%; χ² = 9.28; p = 0.002). Pain was experienced more often by patients who suffered from more than one disease (76.1%; χ² = 16.53; p = 0.001). Individuals experiencing pain were not physically active (44.9%; χ² = 11.88; p = 0.037).

Conclusions. Over a half of participants of the study experienced pain. Lack of pain was characteristic of people who had a high level of satisfaction with life and acceptance of the disease. Urgent diagnosis and pain management is of utmost importance in elderly patient care.