Abstract
The purpose of this study is to discover the prevalence of pain among the elderly with dementia as measured by an observational tool known as the Japanese version of the Abbey Pain Scale (APS-J), as well as self-reports of pain provided by the subjects. A survey was conducted between August and October in 2012, which enrolled 131 elderly people with dementia who were staying at a long-term care facility (29 males and 102 females). According to the 104 subjects, who were able to provide self-reports regarding their pain, the prevalence of pain was 25.00% (26/104). According to the APS-J, the prevalence of pain was 25.95% (34/131). With regards to the APS-J scores for "facial expression" and "physical changes", there were significantly more subjects who self-reported an "unknown" regarding their pain, as compared to subjects who self-reported an "absence of pain". The dependent variables included "symptoms common in dementia" (one of the subscales of Gottfries-Brane-Steen Scale to evaluate BPSD) as well as items on irritability, anxiety and depressive mood (items listed under this subscale) and a multiple regression analysis was performed, which revealed that APS-J contributed significantly to the variance in BPSD after controlling for age and MMSE. Based on these results, it was suggested that pain among the elderly with dementia who are incapable of verbally expressing their pain, is not sufficiently assessed. Also, it was suggested that pain among the elderly with dementia could increase BPSD.
