Pain acceptance and its related social determinants of health in patients with cancer

One of the main steps for designing a comprehensive palliative care program in patients with cancer is to achieve knowledge about pain acceptance.

This study aims to determine the level of pain acceptance and its related social determinants of health in patients with cancer.

This cross-sectional study conducted on 152 patients with cancer hospitalized in the oncology wards of Valiasr and Ayatollah Mousavi hospitals in Zanjan. Participants were included in the study by convenience sampling from June to September 2021. To collect the data, a threepart questionnaire including demographic factors, social determinants and chronic pain acceptance was utilized. Statistical analysis was performed by t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SPSS software version 25.

Most of the participants were male (52%), illiterate (56.6%) and in the age group of 61-75 years (40.1%). The mean (SD) of the total pain acceptance score was 53.37 (19.36), which represents a lower than mean pain acceptance among the participants. The mean of pain acceptance according to the two variables of transportation system (P< 0.001) and occupation (P= 0.003) showed a statistically significant difference.

The findings of the study indicate that pain acceptance in the participants is not desirable. It is essential to plan and put into effects programs in order to improve pain acceptance methods. Moreover, considering the relationship between social determinants of health and pain acceptance, it requires to pay more attention to social determinants of health during the development of interventions to improve patients‟ pain acceptance.