Differences in Sensory Pain, Expectation, and Satisfaction Reported by Outpatients with Cancer or Sickle Cell Disease.
Miriam O Ezenwa, Robert E Molokie, Zaijie Jim Wang and 5 others
PMID 29501359WHAT IT FOUND
Outpatients with sickle cell disease reported more pain locations, more complex pain quality and pattern, but less severe recent pain than African American cancer outpatients.
Pain assessment should capture all of these.
Key findings
01Outpatients with SCD reported more pain sites, higher pain quality scores, and higher pain pattern scores than both cancer outpatient groups.
02The race concordant cancer group reported higher worst pain intensity in the previous 24 hours than the SCD group and the race discordant cancer group.
03The race discordant cancer group reported a worse expectation outcome than the SCD group, and the race concordant cancer group was more dissatisfied with its pain level than the SCD group.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The three groups were convenience samples, so it is unclear how representative they are of other outpatient populations. The SCD group was 20 years younger than either cancer group, which may affect pain reporting. Analgesic use, cancer stage, and preexisting chronic pain were not considered, so they could influence the reported pain. The study did not examine age or gender disparities in pain management. It is a secondary analysis of prior studies, not a controlled trial, so it cannot show why the groups differed.
Declared interests
The supplied publication types indicate NIH extramural research support. The article text provided does not report other conflicts.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the lower recent pain intensity in the SCD group as proof that sickle cell pain is less severe than cancer pain. The SCD group reported more pain sites, higher pain quality, and higher pain pattern scores, and the comparison was made only at routine outpatient visits without accounting for analgesic use or disease factors.