Patient Trade-Offs Related to Analgesic Use for Cancer Pain: A MaxDiff Analysis Study.
William E Rosa, Jesse Chittams, Barbara Riegel and 2 others
PMID 31648906WHAT IT FOUND
Patients with cancer pain most often weighed whether pain medicines would stop them knowing what was going on in their body; addiction concerns were not the top trade-off.
Key findings
01Across the whole sample, patients most often prioritized the belief that pain medicines would stop them knowing what was going on in their body.
02Addiction to medications was ranked fourth by both clusters, so fear of addiction was not the top trade-off.
03Cluster 1 (n=53) reported significantly higher analgesic side-effect severity than cluster 2 (n=154).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Convenience sample from two outpatient oncology services at one hospital, so it may not represent other cancer pain populations. Only patients who self-identified as African-American or White were included, excluding other racial and ethnic groups. Patients using transdermal pain control were excluded, and only those taking oral around-the-clock analgesics were studied. The analysis used only the 207 patients who completed the parent study, after an estimated 14% attrition between visits. The MaxDiff list had ten belief statements in eight choice sets, and provider, family and system factors were not included. Data were collected between 2009 and 2011, and the study describes beliefs and trade-offs rather than observed analgesic-taking behavior.
Declared interests
No conflict-of-interest statement is included in the supplied text. The paper is listed as supported by NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that asking patients about their beliefs will improve cancer pain control. The study described what 207 patients prioritized in trade-offs about analgesics; it did not test an intervention or measure whether education changed adherence.