Pain Experience among Elderly Individuals with Traumatic Injuries Admitted to Surgical Sections in National Hospital, Sri Lanka

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.