چکیده (انگلیسی):

Background:To investigate what a geriatric assessment in general practice adds towards previous findings of
prevalence, location, impact and the dyadic doctor-patient perception of pain in this age group.
Methods:Cross-sectional study. Consecutive patients aged 70 and over underwent a comprehensive geriatric
assessment in general practice that included a basic pain assessment (severity, sites and impact). Patients with pain
and their doctors then independently rated its importance. Pain was correlated with further findings from the
assessment, such as overall health, physical impairments, everyday function, falls, mood, health related lifestyle,
social circumstances, using bivariate and multivariate statistics. Patient-doctor agreement on the importance of pain
was calculated usingkappastatistics.
Results:219 out of 297 patients (73.7 %) reported pain at any location. Pain was generally located at multiple sites.
It was most often present at the knee (33.9 %), the lumbar spine (33.5 %) as well as the hip (13.8 %) and correlated
with specific impairments such as restrictions of daily living (knee) or sleep problems (spine). Patients with pain and
their physicians poorly agreed on the importance of the pain problem.
Conclusions:A basic pain assessment can identify older patients with pain in general practice. It has resulted in a
high prevalence exceeding that determined by encounters in consultations. It has been shown that a geriatric
assessment provides an opportunity to address pain in a way that is adapted to older patients’ needs–addressing
all sites, its specific impact on life, and the patients’ perceived importance of pain. Since there is little doctor-patient
agreement, this seems a valuable strategy to optimize concrete treatment decisions and patient centered care.
Trial registration:This study is registered in the German Clinical Trial Register (DRKS00000792)