Pain intensity among institutionalized elderly: A comparison between numerical scales and verbal descriptors

Abstract

Objective: Correlating two unidimensional scales for measurement of self-reported pain intensity for elderly and identifying a preference for one of the scales. Method: A study conducted with 101 elderly people living in Nursing Home who reported any pain and reached ≥ 13 the scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination. A Numeric Rating Scale - (NRS) of 11 points and a Verbal Descriptor Scale (VDS) of five points were compared in three evaluations: overall, at rest and during movement. Results: Women were more representative (61.4%) and the average age was 77.0±9.1 years. NRS was completed by 94.8% of the elderly while VDS by 100%. The association between the mean scores of NRS with the categories of VDS was significant, indicating convergent validity and a similar metric between the scales. Conclusion: Pain measurements among institutionalized elderly can be made by NRS and VDS; however, the preferred scale for the elderly was the VDS, regardless of gender.