Usability Testing of the iPhone App to Improve Pain Assessment for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment (Prehospital Setting): A Qualitative Study.

Objectives: Pain assessment in older adults with cognitive impairment is often challenging, and paramedics are not given sufficient tools/training to assess pain. The development of a mobile app may improve pain assessment and management in this vulnerable population. We conducted usability testing of a newly developed iPhone pain assessment application with potential users, in this case as a tool for clinical paramedic practice to improve pain assessment of older adults with cognitive impairment.

Role of Emerging Technologies in Geriatric Pain Management.

This article provides a brief overview of the challenges and opportunities of new technologies in the area of geriatric pain management. It also reviews emerging evidence to demonstrate the role technology may play in improving and advancing assessment and management of pain in older adults.

The epidemiology of regional and widespread musculoskeletal pain in rural versus urban settings in those ≥55 years.

Objectives: To examine whether the prevalence of regional and chronic widespread pain (CWP) varies with rurality and to determine the characteristics of persons in rural locations in whom pain is found to be in excess.

Methods: Participants, aged ≥55 years, from participating general practices in seven different geographical locations in Scotland were sent a postal questionnaire. The 1-month prevalence of 10 regional pain conditions plus CWP was identified using body manikins.

Pain reporting in older adults: the influence of cognitive impairment - results from the Cambridge City >75 Cohort study.

Objectives: Evidence suggests that while disabling back pain (BP), and rheumatic diseases associated with pain, continues to increase with age, the prevalence of non-disabling BP reaches a plateau, or even decreases, in the oldest old. This study aimed to determine whether this age-related pattern of non-disabling BP is a function of increasing cognitive impairment.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of adults aged >77 years.

Epidemiology of back pain in older adults: prevalence and risk factors for back pain onset.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of disabling and non-disabling back pain across age in older adults, and identify risk factors for back pain onset in this age group.

Methods: Participants aged ≥ 75 years answered interviewer-administered questions on back pain as part of a prospective cohort study [Cambridge City over-75s Cohort Study (CC75C)]. Descriptive analyses of data from two surveys, 1988-89 and 1992-93, estimated prevalence and new onset of back pain.