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Frailty and Persistent Pain in Oncological Patients Undergoing Rehabilitation
S Crosignani1, L Orlandini, S Baruffi
1S. Crosignani, Fellowship in Geriatrics and Gerontology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy, silvia.crosignani@unimi.it.
Objectives:
Pain is one of the most common symptoms among oncological patients and has a strong negative impact on quality of life. The aim of this study is to assess if frailty and polypharmacy are associated with persistent pain in oncological patients undergoing rehabilitation.
Design:
Observational, prospective, longitudinal study.
Setting And Participants:
Data are from oncological patients admitted to the Oncological Rehabilitation Unit.
Methods:
Presence of pain, its intensity and characteristics were evaluated at the admission and after 7 days. A Frailty Index (FI) was computed from Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) data.
Results:
Among the 45 consecutively recruited patients (mean age 72 years, woman 44%), pain was present in 20 (44%) patients at the admission and 9 (20%) after 7 days of stay. Forty-one patients (92%) were taking more than 5 drugs at the admission (mean 9 drugs). The FI was normally distributed and descriptive statistics define our population as frail (mean 0.44; range 0.23-0.64). The FI was significantly associated with the presence of pain (OR 2.66; 95%CI 1.13-6.27, p=0.03) and its intensity after 7 days from the admission (β 4.24 95% CI 1.28 - 7.19, p=0.006), even after adjustment for potential confounders.
Conclusions And Implications:
Investigating frailty in cancer patients to implement multidisciplinary strategies could play an important role in improving persistent pain.
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