PubMed · 15556828
How do people ease their pain? A population-based study.
Abstract
UNLABELLED: We investigated how a general population treat their pain and determined factors affecting use of different pain management strategies. From the respondents of a cross-sectional postal survey we selected those who had experienced pain during the past 7 days (n = 3641) and analyzed how they had tried to manage their pain during the past 6 months. The most common pain management strategies were use of over-the-counter medicines (53% of 3641 respondents), physical exercise (52%), prescription medicines (35%), and visiting a physician (33%). The location of pain was related to which pain management strategy was chosen. Use of multiple (>4) treatments was related to prolonged pain, having several (>3) painful locations, high intensity and frequency of pain. PERSPECTIVE: This study indicates that people with pain are active in trying different treatments. Self-care strategies, especially over-the-counter medicines and physical exercise, are common ways to manage pain at the population level.
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Juha H O Turunen, Pekka T Mäntyselkä, Esko A Kumpusalo, Riitta S Ahonen. 2004. How do people ease their pain? A population-based study.. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2004.08.003
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