Determining the Attitudes of Individuals Applying to Family Health Centre Towards the Methods They Applied in Pain Management

Abstract

Aim: Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience that has a varying prevalence in society and is controlled by using pharmacological or non-pharmacological methods. The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of individuals, who applied to the family health center (FHC), toward the use of analgesics and the non-pharmacological methods they applied for pain management. Material and Method: The population of the study was composed of 572 individuals from 10 FHCs in the Amasya. The data were collected by a questionnaire consisting of three parts. The first part includes 9 questions investigating the sociodemographic characteristics, the second part includes 18 questions examining the attitudes of the participants toward the use of analgesics, and the third part includes 15 questions evaluating the non-pharmacological methods used by the participants for pain management. This research is a descriptive and cross-sectional study. In the data analysis, nominal variables were evaluated using frequency and percentage. Chi-square test was used to analyze qualitative data. The level of significance was accepted as 0.05. Results: The rates of using analgesics without prescription, and recommending effective analgesics for others, and the reading the prescription of analgesics were found to be high in many variables (p<0.05). Hot-cold application (52.9%), massage (50%), and watching television (26.2%) were the most commonly applied nonpharmacological pain management methods. Conclusion: Individual, social and economic factors affect the use of analgesics. The rate of use of applications such as hot-cold application, massage, and watching television for pain management is high.