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Pain reporting by very old Swedish community dwellers: the role of cognition and function

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Abstract

Background and aims: Pain is a common and unpleasant problem among elderly people and affects the possibility for them to remain living in their own homes. The aims of this study were therefore to report the prevalence of pain reporting and pain treatment, and their association with functional and cognitive status in a very old population. Methods: Cross-sectional population-based study. Participants were 333, aged 84 years or older, living at home alone or with someone in Kungsholmen, in central Stockholm, Sweden. Information on pain was obtained from interviews. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) measured cognitive status and the index of basic Activities of Daily Living (ADL) functional status. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the population and logistic regression models to investigate factors associated with pain reporting and pain treatment. Results: The prevalence of pain was 46%, and the prevalence of pain treatment 71%. Results from logistic regression analysis including all variables in the model showed that pain reporting was not associated with age, gender or living conditions. However, pain reporting was correlated with cognitive and functional status. There was no association between pain treatment and age, gender, living conditions, cognitive or functional status. Conclusions: Pain is common among the oldest old. Our results indicate that cognitive and functional status affect pain reporting. Poor cognitive status was associated with less pain reporting, whereas poor functional status was associated with more pain reporting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sophiahemmet University College, Box 5605, E-114 86, Stockholm, Sweden

    Margareta Westerbotn RMN, MSc & Pernilla Hillerås

  2. Department of Neurobiology, Caring Science and Society (NVS), Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

    Margareta Westerbotn RMN, MSc, Pernilla Hillerås, Johan Fastbom & Hedda Agüero-Torres

  3. Section of Medicine, Stockholm Gerontology Research Center, Sweden

    Margareta Westerbotn RMN, MSc, Pernilla Hillerås, Johan Fastbom & Hedda Agüero-Torres

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  1. Margareta Westerbotn RMN, MSc
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  2. Pernilla Hillerås
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  3. Johan Fastbom
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  4. Hedda Agüero-Torres
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Correspondence to Margareta Westerbotn RMN, MSc.

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Westerbotn, M., Hillerås, P., Fastbom, J. et al. Pain reporting by very old Swedish community dwellers: the role of cognition and function. Aging Clin Exp Res 20, 40–46 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03324746

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