• Lilian Varanda Pereira, Patrícia Pereira de Vasconcelos, Layz Alves Ferreira Souza, Gilberto de Araújo Pereira, Adélia Yaeko Kyosen Nakatani, and Maria Márcia Bachion.
• Faculdade de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil.
• Rev Lat Am Enfermagem. 2014 Jul 1;22(4):662-9.

Objectiveto identify the prevalence and intensity of chronic pain among elderly people of the community and to analyze associations with the self-perceived health status.Methodcross-sectional study with a populational sample (n=934), conducted through household interviews in the city of Goiânia, Brazil. The intensity of chronic pain (existing for 6 months or more) was measured using a numerical scale (0-10) and the self-perceived health through a verbal scale (very good, good, fair, poor, very poor). For the statistical analysis, the absolute frequency and percentage, CI (95%), Chi-square test, Odds ratio, and regression analysis were used. Significance of 5%.ResultsThe prevalence of chronic pain was 52.8% [CI (95%):49.4-56.1]; most frequently located in the lower limbs (34.5%) and lumbar region (29.5%); with high or the worst possible intensity for 54.6% of the elderly people. The occurrence of chronic pain was associated with (p<0.0001) a worse self-perception of health (OR=4.2:2.5-7.0), a greater number of chronic diseases (OR=1.8:1.2-2.7), joint disease (OR=3.5:2.4-5.1) and the female gender (OR=2.3:1.7-3.0). A lower intensity of chronic pain was associated with a better self-perception of health (p<0.0001).Conclusionthe majority of the elderly people of the community reported chronic pain, of a severe intensity, and located in areas related to movement activities, thus influencing the morbidity and mortality of this population.

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