Prevalence of self-referred chronic pain and intercurrences in the health of the elderly

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Chronic pain is a public health problem eliciting personal and social losses. This study aimed at identifying the prevalence of chronic pain and its repercussions in the health of the elderly. METHODS: This was a transversal, population-based study with 416 elderly living in a city to the South of Brazil. Data were collected by home interviews with the Health, Wellbeing and Aging research questionnaire. Chronic pain was considered dependent variable and socio-demographic and health condition characteristics were considered independent variables. Descriptive and inferential data analysis was carried out. Pearson Chi-square and Fisher Exact tests were used for the association between categorical variables, with significance level of 5%. Logistic regression model was used for raw and adjusted analysis. RESULTS: Chronic pain prevalence was 54.7%, mostly in females (64.8%). Among the elderly with chronic pain, 58.6% have classified their health as regular, poor or very poor, 53.3% did not practice physical activities, 19.8% have mentioned difficulties to perform basic daily life activities and 82.5% have referred pain in lower limbs and 74.8% in lumbar region (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Measures to decrease chronic pain in the elderly should be priority, especially in primary health attention services, because this is a multidimensional and complex public health problem.