Determinants of suboptimal cancer pain management
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A qualitative analysis of the determinants of suboptimal cancer pain management
IRAS ID
178429
Contact name
Marijn de Bruin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Aberdeen
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 2 months, 28 days
Research summary
Cancer pain is often poorly controlled, especially in people who are managed at home. In order to improve their pain control, people with cancer pain have to be able to routinely monitor their pain symptoms, their medication intake, and to discuss their pain symptoms and medication intake during consultations with their healthcare practitioner. However, studies have shown that some people with cancer pain can have difficulties monitoring and reporting pain, using pain medication (pain killers) and communicating about pain with their healthcare provider.
There are several factors that could hinder these behaviours. For example, studies have found that people report severe levels of pain and satisfaction with their treatment, suggesting that they may prefer some pain over taking (strong) pain killers. Some may not know enough about cancer pain and how to control it, believe that it is normal to experience pain, or that indicating pain is a sign of weakness. Also, people fear that pain signals the progression of cancer, so they may favour living with higher levels of pain than take pain killers in order to monitor tumour activity and health status.
The study team will talk to people with cancer pain about their experience of cancer pain and how they control it. This study aims to identify the key determinants of pain monitoring, pain killer intake, and discussing pain symptoms and pain killer intake during consultations with healthcare providers. The study will involve conducting interviews (guided by established behavioural theory) with people who experience cancer pain.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
15/NS/0041
Date of REC Opinion
20 May 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion