Crenças de profissionais de centros de dor sobre dor crônica. / Beliefs of health professionals in pain clinics regarding chronic pain.
AUTOR(ES)
Dayse Maioli Garcia
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO
2006
RESUMO
Health professionals assist patients according to their concepts and beliefs. This study analyzed the beliefs of health professionals who assist patients with nonmalignant chronic pain, in different Pain Clinics in Sao Paulo Brazil, using the Pain Attitude Inventory - Professionals. Nine (9) out of 11 Pain Clinics, (81.8%) identified in Sao Paulo, agreed to participate. The professionals completed a Personal and Professional Characterization Profile and the Pain Attitude Inventory Professionals, adapted from the Survey of Pain AttitudesBrief (SOPA-B). Seventy five (75) professionals were interviewed (59.5%). The mean age was 42.8 years (SD=10.5), the distribution regarding gender was similar, and they had a mean of 16 years (SD= 9.9) since graduation; the majority were physicians (58.7%), followed by physical therapists (42.7%) and dentists (10.7%); many of the respondents had completed specialization courses (42.7%), and 26.7% had a master or doctorate degree; 60% of the professionals self-assessed their experience with patients with nonmalignant chronic pain as moderate and 44.0% stated that they assist over 20 patients per month. The Pain Attitude Inventory Professionals was validated with 20 items, the factorial analysis confirmed 6 domains (emotion, control, disability, solicitude, cure and harm), and the reliability of the domains, assessed by Chronbachs alfa, ranged from 0.567 and 0.807, values which are considered moderate to good. The professionals showed beliefs that were strongly desirable in the control (3.1), and emotion (3.7) domains, and moderately desirable beliefs in the harm (1.2), and disability (1.5) domains; and strongly undesirable beliefs in the cure domain (3.4) and finally moderately undesirable beliefs in the solicitude domain (2.5). In order to identify if differences in beliefs could be related to demographic and professional characteristics, three (3) clusters were formed: physicians/post-graduation; non-physicians/specialization courses/ little experience; and graduates/ oncology pain. The comparison between these clusters did not show any statistically significant differences. This inexistence of differences indicated that variables such as profession, gender, age, educational level and years of professional experience did not influence the beliefs of health professionals concerning chronic pain. The undesirable beliefs expressed by the health professionals, that solicitude is desirable and that a cure for nonmalignant chronic pain is highly possible, indicate that there is a need for the incorporation of new concepts in clinical practice. Inadequate beliefs can mislead the conduction of treatment as well as reinforce unrealistic expectations, and cause increases in incapacity and dependence.
ASSUNTO(S)
attitudes of health professionals dor crônica attitudes instrumento chronic pain instrument conhecimento crenças avaliação beliefs atitudes do pessoal de saúde assessment health professionals profissionais de saúde (atitudes) knowledge
