Profiles of adult people in a Spanish sample with chronic pain: Cluster analysis.
Rocío Cáceres-Matos, Eugenia Gil-García, José Manuel López-Millán and 3 others
PMID 35285540WHAT IT FOUND
In Spanish adults with chronic non-cancer pain, two profiles emerged: lower impairment was aged 45-64, employed, mild daily-life impact and no opioid/anxiolytic use; higher impairment was over 65, retired/on leave, severe daily-life impact and opioid/anxiolytic use.
Key findings
01The cluster analysis produced two groups in each sex: lower impairment was 21.5% of women and 33.1% of men, while higher impairment was 78.5% of women and 66.9% of men.
02The higher-impairment group was mainly people over 65, retired or on medical leave, with severe impact on daily life and opioid or anxiolytic use.
03For women, widowed (reported odds 9.69), single (reported odds 18.01) and smoking (reported odds 2.36) were associated with higher impairment.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample came from clinical centres and may not represent all people with chronic non-cancer pain in Spain. The study measured one point in time, so it cannot show that age, work status, medication use, marital status, smoking or alcohol caused higher impairment. The PAIN_Integral Scale is a new instrument with only preliminary validation. People may have under-reported alcohol use or other behaviours, and memory or response bias could affect the results. Medication dose, duration, adherence and non-drug treatments were not considered. The large reported odds for marital status in women came from small subgroup counts: 14 single women and one widow in the lower-impairment group, and seven single women and 51 widowed women in the higher-impairment group. The paper reports different final counts in different places, including 143 men and 243 women, then 146 men and 249 women, so the analysed sample is not fully clear.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the reported odds for widowed or single women as proof that marital status causes higher pain impairment. The study was cross-sectional, the subgroup counts were small, and the authors said cause-effect relationships cannot be established.