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Prevalence and characterization of pain among hospitalized patients

Abstract:

Background: Pain is a public health problem that affects the quality of life of hospitalized patients, with prevalence between 30-70%. Therefore, it is relevant to determine the prevalence, intensity and pain interference in hospitalized patients at the Clínica Reina Sofia in Bogotá. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out, 360 patients > 18 years were included, with hospitalization greater than 24 hours. The instrument BPI-sf was applied, the analgesic treatment at the time of the survey was recorded. Patients in obstetric services, intensive care and those with inability to communicate were excluded. Additionally, we used the term "great interference" to activities scored with value ≥ 8. The study was approved by the ethics committee of the institution. Results: The prevalence of pain was 67.5%. The mean current pain intensity was 3.4 (±2.7) and mean interference was 4.7 (±3.8). No statistically significant differences by gender or type of service in pain intensity and interference were found. Assessing the relationship with intensity, walk was positively correlated with current pain (ρ: 0.35 p = < 0,001). The multimodal analgesia was the method most commonly used, however 23.0% of patients with pain did not received analgesics. Discussion: Because the prevalence of pain is high, it is important to strengthen strategies to identify and treat pain promptly, based on education of paramedical personnel in the active search for patients with pain and identify pain as a fifth vital sign.