Highlights
- •Chronic pain is a prevalent health problem among the elderly in Malaysia with its prevalence of 15.2% (95% CI: 14.5, 16.8).
- •Chronic pain is associated with higher hospitalization rate among Malaysian elderly population.
- •These findings provide further impetus for health policy development in elderly care services.
- •Chronic pain should be considered as a significant condition among the elderly and a significant predictor of hospitalization for the elderly in Malaysia.
Abstract
Objective
The aims of this study were to report prevalence of chronic pain and to examine whether
chronic pain influence healthcare usage among elderly Malaysian population.
Methods
This was a sub-population analysis of the elderly sample in the Malaysia's Third National
Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS III) 2006, a nation-wide population based survey.
A subset of 4954 elderly aged 60 years and above was used in the analysis. Chronic
pain, pain's interference and outcome variables of healthcare utilization (hospital
admission and ambulatory care service) were all measured and determined by self-report.
Results
Prevalence of chronic pain among elderly Malaysian was 15.2% (95% CI: 14.5, 16.8).
Prevalence of chronic pain increased with advancing age, and the highest prevalence
was seen among the old-old group category (21.5%). Across young-old and old-old groups,
chronic pain was more prevalent among females, Indian ethnicity, widows/widowers,
rural residency and those with no educational background. Our study showed that chronic
pain alone increased hospitalization but not visits to ambulatory facilities. Presence
of chronic pain was significantly associated with the frequency of hospitalization
(aIRR 1.11; 95% CI 1.02, 1.38) but not ambulatory care service.
Conclusions
Chronic pain is a prevalent health problem among the elderly in Malaysia and is associated
with higher hospitalization rate among the elderly population. This study provides
insight into the distribution of chronic pain among the elderly and its relationship
with the patterns of healthcare utilization.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 11, 2014
Accepted:
August 27,
2014
Received in revised form:
August 11,
2014
Received:
April 16,
2014
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
