The use of Cantonese pain descriptors among healthy young adults in Hong Kong

Abstract

Background: The interpretation and expression of pain are closely related to an individual’s social and cultural background. To convey messages on pain, language and words (pain descriptors) is particularly significant in assessment and evaluation of pain severity and its management. Therefore, the study of pain descriptors is crucial in clinical practice. Methods: It was of exploratory-descriptive design. Samples were recruited by convenience. Data were collected by structured self-administered questionnaire. Data obtained included demographic information and pain descriptors used by the subjects in various pain conditions. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. Pain descriptors were categorized according to nature, process, intensity, aggravating factors, accompanying symptoms and behavioral manifestation. Results: Total number of pain descriptors (in Cantonese) based on real pain experience was 3017, mean was 3(n=986). The commonest used descriptors was the nature of pain (41%). The intensity of pain cosntituted 20%. There was no significant difference in the number of pain descriptors between male and female. However there was a significant difference between the type of pain descriptors used (M(subscript female)=526, M(subscript male)=453, Z=-2.9729, p=0.0029). There were also significant differences in the use of pain descriptors among the various age groups (X2=15.0157, df=4, P=0.0047) and educational levels (X2=11.2443, df=4, P=0.0240). The types of descriptors used increased with an increase in age and education levels. Conclusions: This exploratory-descriptive study explores the use of pain descriptors among Chinese young adults in Hong Kong. The result shows that female use more pain descriptors than male. The pain descriptors that female used are mostly of nature type. The similarities and differences in findings with those of the Ho’s (1991) are compared.

背景：透過語言傳達不適是表達疼痛的重要一環，疼痛的詮釋及行爲表現與個人的社會及文化背景有密切關係；而醫護人員能否領略病人的疼痛情形，往往影響到疼痛的鑒的鑑定和止痛處置，因此研究病人們所採用的疼痛詞彙是有必要的。 方法：本研究採用了一個以著重探討關侮的探討性及描述性設計，研究對象是經由方便抽樣法，資料是由自我施行的問卷調查來收集。資料包括個人背景和疼痛用詞。個人資料方面採用描述性統計來作分析。疼痛詞彙被分類爲疼痛之性質、過程、強度、誘發因素，伴隨症狀及行爲表現再作分析。 結果：結果顯示，「據真實疼痛之經驗」詞彙所使用粵語字詞次數部數爲3017，每人平均使用的疼痛詞彙數爲3，最常用的爲描述疼痛性質的字（詞彙），比率高達41%，其次爲強度佔20%。在疼詞彙使用的數量中，女性與男性並沒有統計上有意義的差異。但是，在使用疼痛詞彙類別方面則有統計上的差異存在(M（下標 女）=526,M（下標 男）=453,X=-2.9729,P=0.0029)。不同的年齡和教育水平，在使用疼痛詞彙類別上亦有統計上的差異存在(依次X^2=15.0157,df=4,P=0.0047;X^2=11.2443,df=4,P=0.0240)，年紀越長及教育程度愈高所使用的詞彙的類別亦愈多。 結論：此研究使用了描述性統度探討香港成年中國人的疼痛詞彙，結果顯示女性比男性使用較多的疼痛詞彙，其中又以描述疼痛性質的詞彙爲多，研究結果與何氏（香港）研究有異同之處。