Associations between demographics and health-related quality of life for chronic non-malignant pain patients treated at a multidisciplinary pain centre: a cohort study.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the associations between demographics and health-related quality of life for chronic non-malignant pain patients.

DESIGN

A cohort study.

SETTING

A multidisciplinary Danish pain centre.

STUDY PARTICIPANTS

All patients treated at the centre between 2007 and 2013.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Levels of pain, anxiety and depression, and physical and mental status. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) were used.

RESULTS

A total of 1176 patients were included. The majority were women (64%), the mean age was 46.7 ± 14.4 (range 18-89), and 21% were able to work full or part time. On a Numeric Rating Scale from 0 to 10, median pain-intensity was 8 (interquartile range 7-8) and pain-discomfort 8 (interquartile range 7-9) at time of referral. More than half of the patients had symptoms of anxiety and depression. Most of the individual SF-36 domains had median scores between 0 and 40 (Scale from 0 to 100). Patients younger than 50 years of age as well as patients on sick leave/disability pension had significantly lower SF-36 scores. Level of pain, anxiety and depression decreased and SF-36-scores increased significantly after a course of treatment which in most cases consisted of both medical, physiotherapeutic and psychological treatment as well as health-oriented education. The chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U-test, the Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon Signed-rank test were used for analyses.

CONCLUSIONS

In order to improve treatment at a multidisciplinary pain centre, it may be of value to target treatments to different patient subgroups based on, amongst other things, age and employment status.