Pain prevalence, experiences and management strategies among the elderly in Taiwanese nursing homes

The purpose of this study was to explore pain prevalence, experiences, and self-care management strategies among elderly residents of nursing homes in Taiwan. Stratified random sampling was used to recruit participants (n = 150). In these elderly nursing home residents, pain prevalence was 65.3% and the average number of pain sites was 3.24 (SD = 2.59). The mean pain intensity was 3.86 (SD = 1.90) and pain interference was 4.30 (SD = 2.28). "Aching" was the word most commonly used (77.6%) to describe pain. Most participants (54.21%) took prescribed medications for dealing with pain; doctors were the main information source for this self-care strategy. Although participants reported severe bouts of pain, they used limited self-care pain management strategies. Since health care providers play an important role in helping the elderly to manage pain, the authors recommend training nursing home staff to perform regular pain assessments and providing current knowledge about pain assessment and management strategies.