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Article: Chronic Pain in Later Life
- Article from:
- Generations
- Article date:
- October 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright American Society on Aging Fall 2006. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Pain is a complex and unpleasant subjective sensory experience. Undertreated pain not only causes intrinsic suffering but also can affect the function, mood, and social life of an older person (Murray and Scely, 2002). Approximately 25 percent to 50 percent of older community dwellers and 45 percent to 80 percent of nursing home residents suffer from chronic pain (American Geriatric Society [AGS
] panel, 2002). Racial/ethnic and socioeconomic influences have been shown to play a significant role in the way people experience and seek help for with pain. Patterns of pain description, for example, were found to differ among African Americans and Caucasians (Ibrahim et al., 2003). Also, ...