Impact of chronic pain on the elderly’s performance on daily activities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of chronic pain in the daily life activities of elderly. This was a cross-sectional study, carried out with 451 elderly municipal employees. Data was collected through home interview and analyzed using descriptive analysis and chi-square test for comparison of frequencies. As chronic pain it was considered every pain with 6 months duration or more. The daily life activities were assessed by an instrument based on “Older American Resources and Services”. The main outcomes were that the aspects of life that suffered more interference by chronic pain were sleep (40%), humor (39.07%), leisure (36.71%) and appetite (20.93%). In 50% of the elderly that referred interference of the pain, this was evaluated as moderate and intense, for the sleep, appetite, humor, leisure, sexual activity, family and professional life.  No difference was observed in the degree of dependence to perform daily life activities among elderly with or without chronic pain. However, comparing elderly “without pain” with “normal pain” and with “episode or exacerbation of the pain” impairment was observed in the instrumental activities: travelling, shopping and accomplishing domestic tasks (p <0.05).