Policy Options for the Effective Management of Acute Pain among Households in Nakuru

Abstract

Background: The effective management of acute pain remains a challenge to many households especially in resource-poor countries. In Kenya, the healthcare seeking behaviour associated with management of acute pain has not been clearly documented.

Methods: A pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data from 404 randomly selected households in Nakuru County. The sampled households were surveyed three times, the first was to establish the prevalence of acute pain and subsequent surveys assessed the effectiveness of treatment methods used by the patients. It was hypothesized that the interplay between perception of pain, human capital, social capital and burden of pain would be associated with effective management of acute pain. A logit model that utilizes Gibbs sampling and data augmentation was used to establish factors that explain the use of effective healthcare services following the onset of acute pain.

Results: The mean age of the respondents was 28.85 years (SD = 10.30), with 53 percent being males. The prevalence of acute pain was estimated to be 51 percent (95% credible interval 46% to 56%). Effective management of acute pain was found to be related with perception of pain with a one additional unit of pain perception being associated with a 0.006 increase in effectiveness. In turn perception of pain was related to human capital, social capital and the burden of pain. Males and membership to voluntary associations were negatively associated with the perception of pain. However, age and pain intensity had positive relationships with perception of pain.

Conclusion: In order to effectively manage acute pain, the primary measure upon which health educationists and policy planners should focus attention on is to enhance the perception of pain. Such a policy option could be effected by a variety of techniques, including reduction in the number of voluntary groups one belongs to, or instead, by increasing the general experience of patients. Pain perception could also be effected by reducing the intensity of pain of the patients.

Keywords: Acute Pain, Perception of Pain, Pain Intensity, Social Capital, Human Capital