Pain intensity among institutionalized elderly: a comparison between numerical scales and verbal descriptors

• Published in: Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da U S P Vol. 49; no. 5; pp. 804 - 810
• Main Authors: Pereira, Lílian Varanda, Pereira, Gilberto de Araújo, Moura, Louise Amália de, Fernandes, Rayanne Rodrigues
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Portuguese
• Published: Brazil Universidade de São Paulo, Escola de Enfermagem 01-10-2015; SciELO
• Subjects: Aged; Anciano; Dimensión del Dolor; Escalas; Female; Homes for the Aged; Humans; Institutionalization; Male; NURSING; Nursing Homes; Pain Measurement - methods; Pain Measurement - statistics & numerical data; Salud del Anciano Institucionalizado; Saúde do Idoso Institucionalizado; Salud del Anciano Institucionalizado; Anciano; Idoso; Dimensión del Dolor; Health of Institutionalized Elderly; Aged; Scales; Pain Measurement; Escalas; Medição da Dor
• ISSN: 0080-6234; 1980-220X; 0080-6234
• DOI: 10.1590/S0080-623420150000500014

Correlating two unidimensional scales for measurement of self-reported pain intensity for elderly and identifying a preference for one of the scales.
A study conducted with 101 elderly people living in Nursing Home who reported any pain and reached ( 13 the scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination. A Numeric Rating Scale - (NRS) of 11 points and a Verbal Descriptor Scale (VDS) of five points were compared in three evaluations: overall, at rest and during movement.
Women were more representative (61.4%) and the average age was 77.0±9.1 years. NRS was completed by 94.8% of the elderly while VDS by 100%. The association between the mean scores of NRS with the categories of VDS was significant, indicating convergent validity and a similar metric between the scales.
Pain measurements among institutionalized elderly can be made by NRS and VDS; however, the preferred scale for the elderly was the VDS, regardless of gender.