Abstract:
Background: Elders are highly vulnerable to injuries and fractures, which cause chronic pain
and suffering consequently affecting their quality of life. The burden of elderly injuries has
become a public health problem.
Objectives: To determine the pain experience and associated factors among elderly patients
with traumatic fractures and injuries admitted to the National Hospital of Sri Lanka
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with the participation of
randomly selected 150 conscious elderly patients above 65 years who admitted to the
orthopaedic, surgical and accident service wards in National Hospital of Sri Lanka. A pre tested interviewer administered questionnaire and Wong-Baker’s pain scale which is tested and
validated in Sri Lanka were used for data collection. Pearson’s Chi-square test was performed
to determine the association of level of pain with demographic and personal factors with SPSS
version 23. Level of significance was set as 0.05.
Results: Among 150 participants, there were 56% males and majority (84.7%) were in 65-74
years of age. Fifty four of participants experienced unintentional incidents. Most prevalent
injury site was lower extremities (44.7%), while 28%, 6%, 6.7% and 14.7% experienced upper
extremity, head, face and multiple site injuries respectively. Around half (49.7%) of the
individuals reported fractures as a result of the injurious event. Only 6.7% of the individuals
reported that they have sought alternative treatments before attending hospital care. Regarding
the level of pain, 30.7% of individuals reported moderate or severe pain and 50.7% reported
mild pain. There were significant associations of level of pain with age (p = 0.05), gender (p =
0.007) and site of injury (p = 0.006).
Conclusions: Around one third of the elderly individuals with traumatic injuries were
suffering from moderate or severe pain. Age, gender and site of injury were the associated
factors for pain. This study emphasizes the importance of implementation of pain management
strategies for the elderly individuals who experienced traumatic injuries.
