The Association of Demographic Factors with Pain in Patients After Surgery

Background. Pain is considered a subjective, unpleasant, multidimensional experience, which includes different emotional, affective or cognitive components, related to actual or potential tissue damage. Pain is the most common symptom that patients report after surgical procedures. Studies show that the prevalence of postoperative pain can reach up to 80%. Aim. Evaluation of the level of postoperative pain and its association with socio-demographic characteristics. Materials and Methods. This is a crossectional study carried out at University Hospital Centers, Tirana, during the period 2022 – 2023. American Pain Society Patient Outcome Questionnaire (APS-POQ-R)1995/2010 for “Evaluation of Postoperative Pain management”, revised in 2010 was used for data collection. Pain assessment was conducted 6-24 hours after the surgical procedure. Results. A total of 237 patients with a mea age 49.5 (±18.9) yrs and range 18 to 88 years were interviewed. 45.6 % were females and 54.4% males. The prevalence of POP was 79.3%, 95CI (74.2.-83.7). A significant association of pain with gender, agegroup, level of education was found. Conclusion. Acute pain management continues to be a very serious clinical issue. It was concluded that the age, gender, level of education, civil status and residence of patients were significant factors in POP. In order to achieve a more effective management of POP, other studies should be carried out in the future, to evaluate in a more real way, the association of demographic data with pain after surgery. Received: 2 August 2024 / Accepted: 27 October 2024 / Published: 3 December 2024