ArticleInternational archives of medicine2009
Pain management among medical in-patients in Blantyre, Malawi.
Article in International archives of medicine, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 2 citations in OpenAlex.
- Health screening for emerging non-communicable disease burdens among the global poor: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa.Journal of health economics · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPain is a leading symptom which influences patients to seek medical attention. The management of pain among patients attending in-patient care in southern African countries has been little described. Information regarding the prevalence of pain and the quality of its management may be useful in guiding clinical decisions, training of health workers and health care quality improvements.
methodsA hospital-based audit was conducted to estimate the prevalence of pain and examine the quality of its management among patients admitted to adult medical wards at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), Blantyre, Malawi in 2004. Data were abstracted from ward charts of consecutive patients' who had been either been discharged or had died within a specified period. Characteristics of interest included; socio-demographic data, presence or absence of pain at admission, characterization or description of pain when present, and drug treatment given. Data were analyzed to obtain frequencies and proportions of the characteristics and assess the prevalence of pain and quality of care.
resultsA total of 121 patients' case notes were reviewed and the prevalence of pain was recorded for 91 (75.2%) of the patients. Clinicians had recorded pertinent information regarding pain management with the following frequency: pain severity or intensity 5/91 (5.5%), alleviating factors 5 (5.5%), pain radiation 7 (7.7%), exacerbating factors in 9 (9.9%) and periodicity in 43 (47.3%) of the cases. Males with pain were more than 3 times more likely to receive analgesic as compared to females, p < 0.01. Paracetamol was the commonest analgesic prescribed.
conclusionInadequate management of pain among patients attending medical wards at QECH was found. There is need for prospective studies to further characterize pain management and identify pain management gaps in Malawi. Interviews of clinicians and documentation of observations within clinical practice are likely to be of value.
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