title: The prevalence and impact of pain among Taiwanese oncology outpatients.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to report the prevalence and impact of pain among Taiwanese oncology outpatients who had experienced moderate pain. Ninety-two cancer outpatients in two teaching hospitals in the Taipei area of Taiwan were enrolled in a descriptive cross-sectional study. Outpatients aged ≥18 years who had been prescribed opioid analgesics for cancer-related pain completed the Brief Pain Inventory-Chinese questionnaire. Results of this study highlighted an important issue: undertreatment of cancer pain in the Taiwanese outpatients. Patients in this study reported that in the preceding 24 hours they had experienced a mean worst pain of 6.91 (SD 2.06, range 0-10). The average pain intensity in the preceding 24 hours was 5.21 (SD 1.69, range 0-10). Around 50% of the patients had pain most of the time and 25% of the patients had pain all of the time. In the preceding 24 hours the average pain relief experienced was 62.6% (SD 22.2%, range 0%-100%). Only 10.9% of patients experienced good pain relief (defined as 90%-100% of pain relief in the past 24 hours), whereas 45.7% experienced poor pain relief (defined as 0%-60% of pain relief in the past 24 hours). The mean pain interference with the patients' daily activities was 5.69 (SD 2.33, range 0-10). The findings of this study indicate the need for better programmatic efforts to improve relief of cancer pain in Taiwanese outpatients.
authors: School of Nursing, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Science, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors: Shu-Yuan
authors: SY
authors: Liang
authors: Chin-Ching
authors: CC
authors: Li
authors: Shu-Fang
authors: SF
authors: Wu
authors: Tsae-Jyy
authors: TJ
authors: Wang
authors: Shiow-Luan
authors: SL
authors: Tsay
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000208:ethnology / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology; D009859:Oncology Nursing; D010045:Outpatients / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D059408:Pain Management / Q000451:nursing* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology