Pain management among medical in-patients in Blantyre, Malawi

Pain 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.

A 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.

A 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.

Inadequate 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.