Abstract
BackgroundPain in people with dementia is underdiagnosed and undertreated. General practitioners (GPs) play a pivotal role in dementia care but their perspectives on pain in people with dementia remains under-researched. The aim of this study was to explore GPs’ knowledge and attitudes towards pain assessment and management in people with dementia.MethodsThis was a descriptive cross-sectional study. A questionnaire was adapted from a previous study and piloted with 5 GPs. The questionnaire was posted to a census sample of all GPs in Cork city and county in the southern region of Ireland. The questionnaire collected demographic information, responses to a series of Likert-type statements assessing GPs’ knowledge and attitudes, and provided an opportunity for the GP to give qualitative feedback on their experiences of managing pain in dementia. SPSS v25 was used for statistical analysis. Qualitative responses were thematically analysed.ResultsOf the 320 questionnaires posted, 157 completed questionnaires were returned (response rate of 49%). The sample was representative of GPs nationally in terms of years in GP practice and practice location. Over two-thirds (108/157) of respondents had a nursing home commitment. Only 10% of respondents (16/157) were aware of any dementia-specific pain assessment tools. The larger the nursing home commitment of the GP the more likely they were to be familiar with these tools (p = 0.048). The majority of respondents (113/157) believed people with dementia could not self-report pain. Respondents were uncertain about the safety of using opioid medications to treat pain in people with dementia with only 51.6% agreeing that they were safe. The qualitative comments highlighted the importance the GPs placed on surrogate reports of pain, GPs’ uncertainty regarding the value of formal pain assessment tools and the challenges caused by under-resourcing in general practice.ConclusionThis study has highlighted aspects of pain assessment and management in dementia that GPs find challenging. Guidance on pain assessment and management in people with dementia do not appear to be translating into clinical practice. The findings will inform educational interventions being developed by our research team as part of the implementation of the Irish national dementia strategy.The knowledge and attitudes of general practitioners to the assessment and management of pain in people with dementia.
Highlights
Pain in people with dementia is underdiagnosed and undertreated
There was no association found between the numbers of years a General practitioners (GPs) was in practice and having a nursing home commitment
Our findings suggest that GPs are confident in many aspects of assessing pain in people with dementia such as the value of observing behavioural and physiological indicators and the importance of surrogate reports but that they are challenged by many aspects of assessing and managing pain in dementia
Summary
Pain in people with dementia is underdiagnosed and undertreated. General practitioners (GPs) play a pivotal role in dementia care but their perspectives on pain in people with dementia remains under-researched. People with dementia appear to have a significantly increased risk of pain [5], with up to half of people with dementia estimated to be living with chronic pain [6,7,8]. In one study of nursing home residents the prevalence of chronic pain in residents with dementia was almost double that of residents without dementia [9]. In the community setting, pain is more prevalent in people with dementia than in people without dementia [5, 7, 10]. Pain in people with dementia is often underdiagnosed, underestimated and undertreated [9, 17, 18]
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