Which Pain Treatment Goals Are Important to Community-Dwelling Older Adults?

In this cross-sectional study of 237 older adults, we ascertained the importance of seven pain treatment goals and identified factors associated with their perceived importance.

Participants (mean age = 72 years) ranked each goal (e.g., pain reduction; finding a cure) on a 1 (not at all important) to 10 (extremely important) scale. We used general linear models to identify sociodemographic and pain factors independently associated with the perceived importance of each goal and repeated measures mixed models to examine their relative importance.

The goal with the lowest adjusted score was "minimize harmful side effects from pain medications" with a mean (standard error [SE]) of 6.75 (0.239), while the highest ranked goals, "finding a cure," and "reducing my pain" had mean scores of 8.06 (0.237) and 7.89 (0.235), respectively. Pain reduction did not differ significantly from the average of the other 6 goals (P = .072) but was significantly different when compared with the goals of minimizing side effects (P < .0001) and finding a cause for the pain (P = .047), and different from the average of the five other goals excluding finding a cure (P = .021). We did not identify differences in the importance of the seven goals by gender or race/ethnicity. Age was inversely associated with the goals of minimizing harmful side effects and decreasing pain's effects on everyday activities. Pain reduction was rated more important than all other goals but finding a cure.

Future research is needed to establish the benefits of eliciting treatment goals when delivering pain care to older adults.