Which Pain Treatment Goals Are Important to Community-Dwelling Older Adults?

Abstract

Objective: In this cross-sectional study of 237 older adults, we ascertained the importance of seven pain treatment goals and identified factors associated with their perceived importance. Methods: Participants (mean age = 72 years) ranked each goal (e.g., pain reduction; finding a cure) on a 1 (not at all important) to 10 (extremely important) scale. We used general linear models to identify sociodemographic and pain factors independently associated with the perceived importance of each goal and repeated measures mixed models to examine their relative importance. Results: The goal with the lowest adjusted score was "minimize harmful side effects from pain medications"with a mean (standard error [SE]) of 6.75 (0.239), while the highest ranked goals, "finding a cure,"and "reducing my pain"had mean scores of 8.06 (0.237) and 7.89 (0.235), respectively. Pain reduction did not differ significantly from the average of the other 6 goals (P = .072) but was significantly different when compared with the goals of minimizing side effects (P