Table 4. Patient pain status, severity, and management at the first follow-up Neno Palliative Care Program (NPCP) encounter (May through October 2012).
| Variable | n/N (%) | Mean African POS*Pain Score§ (SE)¶ | p-value |
| Patient follow-up | |||
| ≥1 Follow-up NPCP encounter | 35/63 (56) | ||
| Patient died before first follow-up (within 1 month of initial encounter) | 4/63 (6) | ||
| Clinical status at first follow-up encounter | |||
| Pain assessed & documented• | 26/35 (74) | ||
| Pain free# | 5/26 (19) | ||
| Any pain** | 21/26 (81) | 2.9 (0.3) | |
| Moderate-to-severe pain§§ | 11/21 (52) | 4.0 (0.2) | |
| Pain severity at first follow-up encounter for patients with documented pain, by patient characteristic ¶¶ | |||
| Age | 0.1 | ||
| <50 | 13/21 (62) | 2.5 (0.3) | |
| ≥50 | 8/21 (38) | 3.5 (0.5) | |
| Gender | 0.6 | ||
| Male | 15/21 (71) | 2.8 (0.3) | |
| Female | 6/21 (29) | 3.2 (0.6) | |
| HIV status•• | 0.6 | ||
| Sero-positive | 13/20 (65) | 3.0 (0.5) | |
| Sero-negative | 7/20 (35) | 2.7 (0.3) | |
| Cancer | 0.5 | ||
| With Cancer Diagnosis | 17/21 (81) | 3.0 (0.3) | |
| Without Cancer Diagnosis | 4/21 (19) | 2.5 (0.9) | |
| Kaposi sarcoma (KS) | 0.5 | ||
| With KS Diagnosis | 11/21 (52) | 2.7 (0.3) | |
| Without KS Diagnosis | 10/21 (48) | 3.1 (0.5) | |
| Pain management during first follow-up encounter for patients with documented pain ¶¶ | |||
| Morphine | 0.4 | ||
| Morphine prescribed | 14/21 (67) | 3.1 (0.3) | |
| Other analgesia prescribed## | 7/21 (33) | 2.6 (0.5) | |
*African POS = African Palliative Care Association African Palliative Outcome Scale.
Pain measured using the African POS, which scores pain severity in 1-point increments from 0 to 5 on a 6-point Likert scale. Harding R, Selman L, Agupio G, Dinat N, Downing J, et al. (2010) Validation of a core outcome measure for palliative care in Africa: the APCA African Palliative Outcome Scale. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 8∶10. doi:10.1186/1477-7525-8-10.
SE = standard error.
Documented follow-up pain assessment at first return encounter is missing for 9 patients.
Indicated by African POS = 0.
**Indicated by African POS>0.
Indicated by African POS≥3.
For the 21 patients with documented pain at the first follow-up NPCP encounter.
Documented HIV sero-status is missing for 1 patient.
Includes 2 patients without documented analgesia prescription with mean African POS pain score of 2.