Pain in the oldest-old during hospitalization and up to one year later. HELP Investigators. Hospitalized Elderly Longitudinal Project.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the pain experience of very old hospitalized patients during and up to 1 year after hospitalization. To understand the relationship of level of pain to demographic, psychological, and illness-related variables.

DESIGN

Prospective cohort study.

SETTING

Four teaching hospitals.

PARTICIPANTS

1266 patients at least 80 years of age in the Hospitalized Elderly Longitudinal Project (HELP).

MEASUREMENTS

Pain interviews during hospitalization and 2 and 6 months later. Ordinal logistic regression was used to study the association of variables with level of pain.

RESULTS

Interviews about symptoms were available for 806 (64.6% of survivors) patients during hospitalization, 614 (57.9% of survivors) at 2-months, and 416 (48.0% of survivors) at 12 months; of these, 45.8, 49.8 and 53.6%, respectively, reported pain, and 12.9% of those with pain during hospitalization were dissatisfied with its control. Multivariable analysis revealed that study hospital, admission diagnosis, depressed mood, alertness, and level of activity 2 weeks before admission were associated with pain during hospitalization, and pain reported during hospitalization, study site, patient level of activity 2 weeks before hospital admission, and patient education were associated with pain 2 months later.

CONCLUSIONS

Frequency of pain among very old hospitalized patients and at follow-up is similar to that reported for other hospitalized patients. Further studies of strategies to better control pain during and after hospitalization in very old patients are needed. These studies will have to adjust for other variables associated with pain in the oldest-old.