Quality of life of people with chronic pain after acupuncture treatment

Abstract

Pain is a signal of alert, common in sickness and with negative impact in people's life that search for alternative ways of relief. Acupuncture is used because of its analgesic effect. It was questioned if quality of life (QL) changes after acupuncture's beginning. The study aimed to analyse people’s QL after acupuncture treatment to chronic pain relief. It was a descriptive-analytical study carried out in an acupunture clinic of Goiânia-GO, Brazil, in January/February 2006. Data were collected using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). The answers were analysed by descriptive statistics and obtaining each SF-36 scale's score average. Most of the 35 interviewed individuals were female, catholic, with high school level. Pain's principal points were vertebral spine, limbs, joints and head. The highest scores were obtained in the General Health Scale (67.48), Mental Health Scale (65.94) and Physical Functioning Scale (65.57). The smallest scores were in Role-Physical Scale (42.14) and Bodily Pain Scale (47.54). Everyone asserted pain relief and changes in QL after acupuncture use. The highest scores indicate that the individual perception of QL of these people is positive despite pain limitations. They consider themselves healthy, living with pain in the possible manner. The smallest scores indicate areas where is necessary immediate professional intervention to enhance QL of people with chronic pain. Future studies may be conducted to amplify sample and to better understand the magnitude of the multidimensional quality of life variables.

Key words: Quality of Life; Acupuncture; Pain; Nursing.