[Chronic pain in elderly people during the COVID-19 pandemic]. / Chronische Schmerzen im Seniorenalter vor dem Hintergrund der COVID-19-Pandemie.
Schmerz
; 36(6): 429-436, 2022 Dec.
Article
in German
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2014155
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
International studies have shown negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mood and levels of distress. Correlations between the pandemic and higher levels of pain as well as greater pain-related disability have also been found; however, studies report ambiguous results about whether elderly people cope differently with the pandemic and its effects.METHODS:
The University Hospital of Würzburg offers multimodal pain therapy for older adults. The current study performed a retrospective analysis of routine data measured during an interdisciplinary multimodal assessment. We compared nâ¯= 75 patients taking part in the therapy during 2018 and 2019 to nâ¯= 42 patients assessed in 2020-2021. We measured pain, mental distress and physical functioning using the German Pain Questionnaire, clinical diagnosis, and geriatric tests of physical fitness.RESULTS:
Both subgroups did not differ in demographic characteristics, neither did we find significant differences regarding pain intensity, pain-related disability, and mental health; however, patients before the pandemic reported a higher number of days on which they felt limited due to pain. In the physical performance test, we even found significantly better results during the COVID-19 pandemic.DISCUSSION:
The current data do not support an aggravation of pain or mental and physical well-being. Possible explanations could be better resilience in elderly people due to their experience of life, financial security or less change in their daily life.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Chronic Pain
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Aged
/
Humans
Language:
German
Journal:
Schmerz
Journal subject:
Neurology
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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