Do Nursing Home Residents With Dementia Receive Pain Interventions?

This study compares pain interventions received by nursing home residents with and without dementia. Secondary data analyses of cross-sectional data from 50,673 nursing home residents in New York State were collected by the Minimum Data Set 3.0. Frequency distributions and bivariate analyses with chi(2) tests were used to organize and summarize the data. Logistic regression analyses were performed to quantify the relationship between dementia and pain interventions. Our results show that residents with dementia had significantly fewer pain assessments and less reported pain presence than their counterparts. After adjusting for covariates, the results indicate that residents with dementia were significantly less likely to receive pro re nata and nonmedication pain intervention. However, there were no significant differences in scheduled pain medication between the 2 groups. To address the gap, we need more research to design a pain assessment tool that can differentiate severity of pain so that appropriate interventions can be applied.