الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Joint pain is a highly prevalent condition in the older population, fluctuates in frequency over time, and is strongly linked to
psychological factors as well as disability (Donald and Foy, 2004).
Only a minority of the older adults consult the general practitioner for
joint pain because they believed that, joint pain and stiffness are seen
as an inevitable part of ageing for which the doctor can do little
(Gignac, Davis and et al., 2006).
Older adults with joint pain and comorbidity may have a higher
risk of poor functional outcome, decreased quality of life, can not
coping with their pain and possibly need more attention in primary
care (Sawyer et al, 2006). So pain coping strategies are effective
methods for dealing with joint pain among elderly people. It enhances
the elder’s belief in their own abilities, and develops methods for
dealing with stressful situations (Thomas, 2007).
This study was conducted in order to assess pain coping
strategies among elderly people with joint pain.
Subjects
A convenience sample of 327 old people (136 male and 191
female) who attended to out patient clinics (orthopedic) during the
period of the study(one year) was selected according to the
following criteria :-
Their age above 60 years.
Both sexs
They complain from joint pain.
Alert and agree to participate.
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Tools of data collection
Data was collected through using two tools:
(1): Interview Questionnaire consist of five parts (sociodemographic
data- history of chronic disease- pharmacological history- information
about joint pain- beliefs and attitudes of elderly toward pain)
(2): Coping strategies questionnaire consist of(Coping selfstatements,
ignoring pain sensation. diverting attention, reinterpreting
pain sensation, praying and hoping, catastrophizing, increasing
activity level, increasing pain behaviors).
The main findings of the study revealed the following:
The most common causes of joint pain were arthritis followed
by osteoarthritis and the major clinical manifestation were the
morning stiffness, exacerbation of pain with exercise and
hotness of joint.
The highest percentage of the affected joint among the sample
was knee joint followed by back joint.
Regarding the effect of joint pain on elderly people, more than
half of them the joint pain affected on their ability to exercise
day to day activities, mood, social relation with other, sleep and
their ability to concentrate.
The majority of the sample believed that the pain is natural
result of getting older and two thirds of them had some control
and could decrease the joint pain to some what.
Elderly people with young age ranged from 60-70 years old
used a verity of pain coping strategies to cope with their joint
pain especially cognitive coping strategies rather than
Summary
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behavioral coping strategies. While the oldest elderly people
(80-91 years old) used maladaptive coping strategies as
catastrophizing.
There were highly statistical significant differences between
males and females regarding different types of pain coping
strategies as ignoring pain, catastrophizing and increasing pain
behavior.
There were statistical significant differences between some
types of pain coping strategies and their education level
There were statistical significant differences between the
subjects who had severe pain and the other who had moderate
pain regarding some types of pain coping strategies
There were statistical significant differences between categories
of income regarding reinterpreting pain sensation,
catastrophizing and increasing activity level.
Elderly people who had no history of chronic disease used more
pain coping strategies per day than who had to control their
joint pain. It was concluded that joint pain is very common among older
people in the community and is the major cause of disability, elderly
people used a variety of pain coping strategies to cope with their joint
pain especially cognitive coping strategies rather than behavioral
coping strategies. The highest percentage of them always used praying
and hoping for coping with joint pain, elderly women used coping
strategies per day more than men to manage their pain. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended
that:
1- Integrate elderly care, including pain assessment measures, as an
element in primary health care in Egypt.
2-Health education about non-pharmacological pain relieving
measures and change elderly misconception about pain.
3-Development and implementation of pain coping strategies
programs for elderly people with joint pain.