title: Painful Memories: Reliability of Pain Intensity Recall at 3 Months in Senior Patients.
abstract: Background.Validity of pain recall is questioned in research.Objective.To evaluate the reliability of pain intensity recall for seniors in an emergency department (ED).Methods.This study was part of a prospective multicenter project for seniors (≥65 years old) treated in an ED for minor traumatic injury. Pain intensity (0-10 numerical rating scale) was evaluated at the initial ED visit, at one week (baseline), and 3 months. At three months, patients were asked to recall the pain intensity they had at baseline.Results.482 patients were interviewed (mean age 76.6 years, SD ± 7.3) and 72.8% were female. Intraclass correlation coefficient between pain at baseline and its recall was 0.24 (95% CI: 0.14-0.33). Senior patients tended to overestimate their pain intensity by a mean of 1.2 (95% CI: 0.9-1.5) units. A stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that the variance of baseline pain recall at 3 months was explained by pain at ED visit (11%), pain at 3 months (7%), and pain at baseline (2%).Conclusion.The accuracy of pain intensity recall after three months is poor in seniors and seems to be influenced by the pain experienced at the time of injury.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Research Centre, Sacré-Coeur Hospital of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada; Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Raoul
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6507-0198
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Daoust
authors.affiliation: Axe de Recherche en Traumatologie-Urgence-Soins Intensifs du Centre de Recherche FRQ-S du CHU, Quebec City, QC, Canada; Faculté de Médecine, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Marie-Josée
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9775-6960
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Sirois
authors.affiliation: Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Jacques S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Ottawa, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Jeffrey J
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2134-9597
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistic, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Lauren E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Griffith
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistic, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7085-5061
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Worster
authors.affiliation: University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Eddy
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0850-4337
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Research Centre, Sacré-Coeur Hospital of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Paquet
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Research Centre, Sacré-Coeur Hospital of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada; Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Jean-Marc
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Chauny
authors.affiliation: Axe de Recherche en Traumatologie-Urgence-Soins Intensifs du Centre de Recherche FRQ-S du CHU, Quebec City, QC, Canada; Faculté de Médecine, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7158-8110
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Émond
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013997:Time Factors