Pain prevalence and methods for overcoming pain among old people living in Keşap town center, in Giresun city

The research was carried out as descriptive one to identify elderly people's pain prevalence and methods to cope with pain. The sample of the research was composed of 255 elderly people living in Keşap town in Giresun city. The research was done by home visits between March 2015 and June 2015. The data was collected by using Personal Information Form, Geriatric Pain Measure and Pain Coping Questionnaire. Numbers, percentage, average, Oneway Anova, Kruskall Wallis and Students t tests were used to evaluate data. Pain prevalence of the elderly participants in last month was detected as 92.5% and chronic pain prevalence as 73.7% for any reason. The elderly participants' average point of Geriatric Pain Measure was stated as 55.03±25.80. When investigating sub-dimensions' point averages of Pain Coping Questionnaire, points were found; Self-Management as 18.71±6.89, Helplessness as 11.11±5.69, Conscious Cognitive Attempts as 12.20±4.56 and Medical Remedies as 9.69±5.68. Significant difference was found between Geriatric Pain Measure and Helplessness point average; and age, gender, education, marital status, economic condition, the person who is responsible for nursing the elderly, need for assistance in daily life activities and chronic disease. Significant difference was found statistically between average points of Self-Management and education; between average points of Conscious Cognitive Attempts and gender, education, need for assistance in daily life activities; between average points of Medical Remedies and age, marital status, economic condition, the person who is responsible for nursing the elderly, need for assistance in daily life activities and chronic disease. As a result, it was revealed that pain prevalence was high in the elderly; sociodemographic variables such as being elderly, low education level, female gender, poor economic condition caused elderly people feel more pain, affected coping with pain negatively and made elderly people feel more helpless.