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Abstract
Background
Pain is common in older adults. To maintain their quality of life and promote healthy ageing in the community, it is important to lower their pain levels. Pharmacological pain management has been shown to be effective in older adults. However, as drugs can have various side effects, non-pharmacological pain management is preferred for community-dwelling older adults. This systematic review evaluates the effectiveness, suitability, and sustainability of non-pharmacological pain management interventions for community-dwelling older adults.
Methods
Five databases, namely, CINHAL, Journals@Ovid, Medline, PsycInfo, and PubMed, were searched for articles. The criteria for inclusion were: full-text articles published in English from 2005 to February 2019 on randomized controlled trials, with chronic non-cancer pain as the primary outcome, in which pain was rated by intensity, using non-pharmacological interventions, and with participants over 65 years old, community-dwelling, and mentally competent. A quality appraisal using the Jadad Scale was conducted on the included articles.
Results
Ten articles were included. The mean age of the older adults was from 66.75 to 76. The interventions covered were acupressure, acupuncture, guided imagery, qigong, periosteal stimulation, and Tai Chi. The pain intensities of the participants decreased after the implementation of the intervention. The net changes in pain intensity ranged from − 3.13 to − 0.65 on a zero to ten numeric rating scale, in which zero indicates no pain and ten represents the worst pain.
Conclusions
Non-pharmacological methods of managing pain were effective in lowering pain levels in community-dwelling older adults, and can be promoted widely in the community.
Pain is common in older adults. To maintain their quality of life and promote healthy ageing in the community, it is important to lower their pain levels. Pharmacological pain management has been shown to be effective in older adults. However, as drugs can have various side effects, non-pharmacological pain management is preferred for community-dwelling older adults. This systematic review evaluates the effectiveness, suitability, and sustainability of non-pharmacological pain management interventions for community-dwelling older adults.
Methods
Five databases, namely, CINHAL, Journals@Ovid, Medline, PsycInfo, and PubMed, were searched for articles. The criteria for inclusion were: full-text articles published in English from 2005 to February 2019 on randomized controlled trials, with chronic non-cancer pain as the primary outcome, in which pain was rated by intensity, using non-pharmacological interventions, and with participants over 65 years old, community-dwelling, and mentally competent. A quality appraisal using the Jadad Scale was conducted on the included articles.
Results
Ten articles were included. The mean age of the older adults was from 66.75 to 76. The interventions covered were acupressure, acupuncture, guided imagery, qigong, periosteal stimulation, and Tai Chi. The pain intensities of the participants decreased after the implementation of the intervention. The net changes in pain intensity ranged from − 3.13 to − 0.65 on a zero to ten numeric rating scale, in which zero indicates no pain and ten represents the worst pain.
Conclusions
Non-pharmacological methods of managing pain were effective in lowering pain levels in community-dwelling older adults, and can be promoted widely in the community.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1488 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-10 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | BMC Public Health |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 8 Nov 2019 |
Bibliographical note
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Keywords
- Digital
- Health
- Chronic pain
- Aged
- Older adults
- Community-dwelling
- Non-pharmacological interventions
- Complementary therapy
- Systematic review
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The effectiveness of an electronic pain management programme (ePain) for working population with chronic pain: A randomized controlled trial
Fotis, T. (Supervisor)
2018 → …Activity: External examination and supervision › Research degree