Acute and Chronic Pain Management in Hospital Patients Based on Real-World Data

Area of Science:

• Pain Management
• Hospital Medicine
• Nursing Quality Measurement

Background:

• Multimodal analgesic and non-pharmacological interventions are recommended for hospitalized patients with acute and chronic pain.
• Real-world data comparing pain management in these patient groups is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe and compare the pain management interventions used for hospitalized patients with acute versus chronic pain.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional analysis of Austrian Nursing Quality Measurement 2.0 data (2021-2023).
• Patients (n=2,118) categorized as acute (n=1,163) or chronic (n=955) pain.
• Nurse-documented demographics, diagnoses, care dependency, and pain interventions; descriptive statistics and bivariate testing performed.

Main Results:

• Pharmacological treatments predominated in both groups, with higher use in acute pain (99.0%) than chronic pain (86%).
• Acute pain care more often included NSAIDs; chronic pain patients received more opioids.
• Physiotherapy was similarly used (≈40%), while other non-pharmacological modalities were infrequently applied (<10%).

Conclusions:

• Current Austrian hospital pain management relies heavily on medications, with limited integration of non-pharmacological options for both acute and chronic pain.
• Results provide a baseline for quality improvement initiatives in pain management.
• Future research should focus on outcomes, effectiveness, and barriers to multimodal pain management.