ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
Pain is a common symptom in people living with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, being widely underreported and not treated. For this reason, there is the need for studies discussing the subject in the attempt to explain factors involved in this process and to look for adequate and effective therapies. So, this study aimed at relating pain level in people living with human immunodeficiency virus to socio-demographic and clinical variables.
METHODS:
This was a descriptive and cross-sectional study with 261 individuals living with the human immunodeficiency virus. Visual analog scale for pain intensity and semi-structured interview for anamnesis were applied.
RESULTS:
A total of 47.5% of individuals was found reporting mild pain/no pain; 24.1% with moderate pain and 28.4% with severe pain. There has been significant relationship between pain and gender (p=0.02), health status (p=0.001), health perception with regard to feeling ill or not (p=0.001) and infection stage (p=0.005). Pain was characterized as shooting (69%), piercing (55%) and burning (41%), with significant relationship with regard to pain intensity (p<0.001) and time (p<0.001). When the logistic regression model was applied, the fact of being a female has represented a risk of 7.256 (p<0.001) for moderate pain and of 5.329 (p<0.004) for severe pain. With regard to age, age groups between 21 and 30 years (0.073; p<0.046), 41 and 50 years (0.068; p<0.023) and 51 and 60 years (0.063; p<0,030) were protection factors for the presence of moderate pain. With regard to health status, this variable was a risk factor for the presence of moderate pain (8.13; p<0.038) and severe pain (11.73; p<0.005).
CONCLUSION:
Pain was a prevalent symptom among people living with human immunodeficiency virus.
Keywords:
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome; Human immunodeficiency virus; Pain