Abstract

BARRAGAN-BERLANGA, Abel Jesús; MEJIA-ARANGO, Silvia  and  GUTIERREZ-ROBLEDO, Luis Miguel. Pain in the elderly: prevalence and associated factors. Salud pública Méx [online]. 2007, vol.49, suppl.4, pp.s488-s494. ISSN 0036-3634.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and the factors associated with pain in the Mexican elderly. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Persons ages 50 years or older answered the question: "Do you often suffer physical pain?" Prevalences were obtained, afterwhich multivariate analyses were conducted for the entire sample and for each age group to determine the associated factors. RESULTS: Pain prevalence was 41.5%, more frequent in women (48.3% vs. 33.6%) and increased with age. There was a lower prevalence for persons with more education. Pain was directly associated with the report of arthritis, lung disease, falls, hypertension, depression, stroke, cancer history and problems with activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living. CONCLUSIONS: Pain is a common problem among elderly and is associated with some comorbidities.

Keywords : pain; age; elderly; prevalence; functionality; Mexico.

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