The following is a summary of “Older age and risk for delayed abdominal pain care in the emergency department,” published in the October 2024 issue of Emergency Medicine by Bloom et al.
Demographic factors are reported to be linked with suboptimal acute pain care.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess the connection between demographics (age, sex, and ethnicity) and time to initial analgesia (primary endpoint) and opioid selection (secondary endpoint) in emergency attendances for abdominal pain.
They analyzed data from 4 months of adult visits with abdominal pain in a UK National Health Service Trust’s emergency department (ED) and collected demographics, pain scores, and analgesia data. Proportions and exact 95% CI for categorical data, median, and interquartile range (IQR) for continuous data were used, along with the quantile median regression for time to initial analgesia and logistic regression for opioid selection.
The results showed that among 4,231 patients, 1457 (34.4%) received analgesia with a median time of 110 minutes (95% CI, 104–120, IQR, 55–229). Univariate analysis found age decade (P= 0.0001) associated with time to initial analgesia. Multivariable analysis confirmed this association, with each decade increasing prolonging time by 6.9 minutes (95% CI, 1.9–11.9; P= 0.007). Univariate and multivariable analyses found no association between time to initial analgesia and detailed ethnicity (14 categories, P=0.109) or 4-category ethnicity (P=0.138). No demographic or operational variables were associated with the secondary endpoint, while opioid initial choice was associated only with pain score (P=0.003).
They concluded that older age was associated with prolonged time to initial analgesia in patients with abdominal pain.
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