[Standardised pain assessment in cognitively impaired nursing home residents: Comparing the use of assessment tools in dementia care units and in integrated care units].

BACKGROUND: A large number of nursing home residents with cognitive impairments (CI) suffer from chronic pain, which is also discussed as a reason for challenging behavior. To assess pain in people with severe CI, the use of an observational pain instrument is recommended; for people without or with mild CI the gold standard is a self-rating instrument. It is unknown whether in German nursing homes pain assessment in residents with severe CI is actually conducted using observational instruments and which instruments are used. Because of different resident structure we assume that in dementia care units observational pain instruments are more often used than in integrated care units. The aim of this study was to investigate the conduction of pain assessments and the instruments used in both types of care units.

METHODS: We conducted an observational study based on standardized data collection. A questionnaire was used to elicit whether pain assessment had been performed and what kind of instrument had been used last time. The cognitive status was also assessed. Based on these data, we determined for each resident whether a self- or proxy-rating instrument had been applied, considering his or her cognitive status. Afterwards, the resident data were aggregated on a care unit level. The use of single instruments was calculated in percentages. Differences between dementia care units and integrated care units were investigated with descriptive statistics and an independent t-test. A mixed-effects binary regression model was used to adjust for cluster effects.

RESULTS: The analysis sample consisted of n = 1,397 participating residents living in n = 75 care units (n = 30 dementia care units; n = 45 integrated care units). In the dementia care units, a mean of 82 % of residents with severe cognitive impairments was assessed using an observational proxy-rating assessment instrument; in the traditional integrated care units a percentage of 42 % was calculated. In the dementia care units, the median percentage of residents with severe cognitive impairments who were assessed with a self-rating instrument was below 10 %; in integrated care units it was 51 %. The differences were statistically significant. A mixed regression model confirmed the results. In the majority of dementia care units a single pain assessment tool was used for all residents; in 18 of 30 dementia care units this was a proxy-rated observational instrument.

DISCUSSION: The results indicate that pain assessment in cognitively impaired patients is suboptimal in many integrated care units because the nurses use inappropriate instruments. Also, they confirm the results of previous studies by demonstrating that instruments are used in clinical practice that are not recommended because their German-language versions are not validated. Since valid pain assessment is a prerequisite to appropriate pain treatment, we may assume that in many residents this is also not carried out as recommended.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Especially in integrated units, a defined and consented method of pain assessment is important because of the differences in their residents' cognitive and verbal abilities. Appropriate education may help to improve this process.