Table 1.
Comparisons of patients with and without chronic pain within each group
| Heart Failure N = 184 | Diabetes N = 221 | General Primary Care N = 219 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report chronic pain | 65% | 61% | 61% | ||||||
| Chronic pain N=120 n (%)* mean ± SD | No chronic pain N=64 n (%)* mean ± SD | P | Chronic pain N=135 n (%)* mean ± SD | No chronic pain N=86 n (%)* mean ± SD | P | Chronic pain N=133 n (%)* mean ± SD | No chronic pain N=86 n (%)* mean ± SD | P | |
| Demographics | |||||||||
| Age (years) | 72±11 | 74±9 | NS | 67±11 | 72±9 | < .01 | 66±12 | 70±10 | < .01 |
| White | 89(77) | 49(78) | NS | 101(78) | 73(86) | NS | 109(83) | 78(92) | NS |
| High school education or more | 76(64) | 53(83) | < .01 | 95(73) | 61(73) | NS | 114(86) | 63(76) | NS |
| Married or living with a partner | 81(68) | 41(64) | NS | 91(69) | 60(72) | NS | 96(73) | 58(70) | NS |
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| |||||||||
| Health status and function | |||||||||
| Health status “fair” or ”poor” | 91(76) | 38(59) | < .05 | 81(60) | 24(28) | < .001 | 72(54) | 23(27) | < .001 |
| Number of health conditions (0 – 14)† | 5.7±1.8 | 4.8±1.7 | < .01 | 4.4±2.0 | 3.8±1.7 | < .05 | 3.3±2.0 | 2.3±1.7 | < .001 |
| Employment‡ | |||||||||
| Not working due to health | 40(33) | 6(10) | <.001 | 23(18) | 5(6) | < .05 | 24(18) | 8(10) | NS |
| Retired | 78(65) | 53(84) | .01 | 87(67) | 64(77) | NS | 79(60) | 57(69) | NS |
| Employed | 9(8) | 6(10) | NS | 19(15) | 19(23) | NS | 31(23) | 18(22) | NS |
| Other (e.g., student) | 5(4) | 0 | NS | 7(5) | 3(4) | NS | 7(5) | 2(2) | NS |
| Minutes per week of exercise | 71±76 | 105±90 | .01 | 99±82 | 115±99 | NS | 91±82 | 123±101 | < .05 |
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| Ratings of overall quality of care | |||||||||
| Quality of overall care from VA rated as “good,” “very good” or “excellent”§ | 97/111(87) | 51/54(94) | NS | 107/127(84) | 75/76(99) | .001 | 106/124(85) | 73/78(94) | NS |
The denominator used to calculate the percentage varies slightly due to item non-response, which is less than 5% for most items.
Sum of total conditions identified from the following list: chronic heart failure, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, kidney disease, liver disease, ulcer, eye disease, lung disease, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), peripheral neuropathy, and arthritis
Percentages do not sum to 100 as some respondents selected more than on employment category, e.g., 18 people indicated they were retired and not working due to health.
Excludes responses from 54 respondents, 10 who indicated they did not receive care from VA and 44 who did not respond to the question. The number that did not respond ranges from 13 in the heart failure group to 16 in the general group but the number with pain vs. no pain does not differ by more than one within groups.