Canadian Journal of Pain-Revue Canadienne de la Douleur最新文献

Background: Chronic pain and higher body weight frequently co-occur. This common comorbidity is thought to be mediated by the use of comfort eating as a strategy for managing both the physical and psychological pain and discomfort associated with flare-ups of chronic pain. Valid and reliable assessment tools are needed to inform the development of effective treatments.

Aims: This study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of a new brief measure of pain-induced comfort eating in chronic pain, the Pain-Induced Comfort Eating Scale (PICES).

Methods: A sample of 166 patients with chronic pain completed an online test battery including the PICES along with measures of chronic pain and pain-related symptoms, disordered eating, and related psychological factors.

Results: Results of exploratory factor analysis revealed a single-factor model for the four-item PICES. Further, the PICES demonstrated evidence of good internal consistency as well as convergent validity with demonstrated correlations with related measures. The results of this study also revealed that comfort eating in chronic pain appears to be related to psychological distress; the PICES correlated more strongly with measures assessing mood and psychological distress compared to interference/intensity of physical pain itself. Scores on the PICES also correlated strongly with measures of uncontrolled and emotional eating.

Conclusions: Overall, our results indicate that the PICES provides a valid and useful brief measure of comfort eating in chronic pain that might be useful to inform treatments targeting the comorbid disordered eating practices that can lead to higher body weights in patients with chronic pain.

Introduction: Chronic pain is a costly and incapacitating condition, with a projected global prevalence of 20%. In South Africa, almost one in five adults experience chronic pain. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of chronic pain and the association between chronic pain intensity and the interference of pain with life domains in patients attending a primary health care center.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional quantitative study on a sample of 331 patients at Soshanguve Community Health Centre. The data were collected using the Wisconsin Brief Pain Questionnaire, a validated scale for measuring pain.

Results: The mean age of participants was 51.6 years (SD = ±15.15, range = 18-86). The median age was 48 years (interquartile range = 40-64). The prevalence of chronic pain was 21.5% (95% confidence interval [CI] 17.0-25.9). Approximately 58% of participants were female, and female patients were affected more frequently than male patients. Chronic pain was observed to be 11.1% more prevalent in females than in males. Chronic pain mildly impacted general activity in 33.8% of patients (95% CI 23.9-45.4), mood in 42.3% (95% CI 31.4-53.8), walking ability in 29.6% (95% CI 20.2-41.0), relationships in 47.9% (95% CI 36.7-59.3), sleep in 31.0% (95% CI 21.4-42.5), enjoyment of life in 39.4% (95% CI 28.9-51.1), and normal working ability in 25.3% (95% CI 16.7-36.6).

Conclusions: Findings from this study show that among patients who attended the primary health care clinic, chronic pain was highly prevalent and interfered with their life domains. The intensity of pain was high in a significant proportion of patients. These findings provide invaluable information needed for the improvement of resources at the primary care level to comprehensively evaluate pain in our communities.