Association of pain, social support and socioeconomic indicators in patients with spinal cord injury in Iran

Study design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Objectives: Pain is a prevalent complication of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Our objective was to examine the association between social support, socioeconomic factors and psychosocial factors and pain to develop more effective management strategies. Setting: Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Research (BASIR) Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Methods: The Persian version of the Brief Pain Inventory was used to measure the pain, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support was used to measure social support through structured face-to-face interviews in SCI individuals. Results: The overall prevalence of pain was 50.7%; 79.3% of individuals had bilateral pain, with lower limbs and back being the most common location. The quality of pain was described as aching (41.4%), tingling (32.9%), pressure (15.7%), coldness (5.7%) and feeling electric shock sensations (4.3%). The frequency of pain in individuals with paraplegia (60.9% vs 45.7%) and incomplete (53.5% vs 52.5%) SCI was higher than with other types of neurological injuries. Patients with a medium level of education had the least pain and those with good economic situation reported higher frequency of having pain (P=0.034). There was no significant relationship between pain and social support. There was a positive correlation between pain and impairment of mood, normal work, relations with other people and lack of sleep (P<0.001). Conclusion: These novel findings will inform the development of strategies to manage pain by improving access to health- care facilities and supplies.