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IntroductionPain is the most common complaint of elderly people. In Poland, no large studies on the prevalence of chronic pain in the elderly were conducted until recently.Material and methodsThe study was a part of the PolSenior project, a cross-sectional multidisciplinary study on ageing of the Polish population, and included a randomly selected group of 716 people aged 55–59 years, and 4979 people over 65 years. The survey was conducted through a standardized questionnaire. An evaluation of pain occurrence, location, intensity and coexistence of pains in relation to gender, age and use of health care was performed.ResultsChronic pain affected 42.0% of respondents aged 65 years and over (48.6% of women and 35.8% of men) as compared to 35.2% of the pre-elderly. The most common pain locations were the lumbar region (51.6%) and knees (41.0%). The average number of pain sites was 3.1 ±2.3. Average intensity of pain was 6.2 points on the VAS scale in people over 65 years and 6.0 points in the pre-elderly (NS). Average pain intensity increased significantly from 5.7 points in patients reporting pain in one place to 7.2 points in those reporting six pain sites. Elderly respondents with pain compared to those without pain more frequently reported physician visits performed at least once a month (54.6% vs. 48.4%, p < 0.001).ConclusionsPolish elderly most frequently complained of low back and lower limb pain. In respondents reporting many sites of pain, an increase in the intensity of pain was observed. Elderly patients with chronic pain often use medical care.

Many age-associated diseases are accompanied by pain. There is no doubt that pain is underrecognized among elderly nursing home residents and the diagnosing of pain is a real challenge in subjects with dementia. The aim of the study was to characterize analgesic use among nursing home residents and to delineate the putative associations between pain management and cognitive functions of elderly persons. The study involved 392 subjects (males:females – 81:311) with a mean age of 83.6±5.9 years. The residents’ medical files in relation to diagnoses and drug consumption were analyzed, and the screening of cognitive functions was performed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). One hundred and thirteen residents (28.8%) received some analgesics. Among them 84 (21.4%) used them routinely, 25 (6.4%) – pro re nata (PRN) and four (1.0%) – both routinely and PRN. Non-opioid analgesics were taken routinely by 53 residents, weak opioids by nine subjects, and one person was receiving strong opioids. Additionally, three individuals were taking a combination preparation of tramadol and acetaminophen. The rate of subjects who were not receiving any pain treatment was higher in residents with MMSE between 0 and 9 points than in those with MMSE between 24 and 30 points (P=0.0151). Furthermore, ten residents (9.1%) with severe dementia were treated with analgesics PRN. The results of our study point to a remarkably low use of analgesics in nursing home residents in Poland and indicate a need to introduce pain evaluation and monitoring of drug treatment appropriateness as a standard procedure in the geriatric assessment in nursing homes.

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