Pain Characteristics of Adult Haematological Cancer Patients at an Outpatient Clinic in Nigeria – a Cross-sectional Study

OBJECTIVE Pain is a very common complaint among haematological cancer patients. There is yet to be a study on the portrayal of pain experiences among haematological cancer patients in Nigeria. This main aim of this study is to do an appraisal of the clinical characteristic of pain issues in Nigerian haematological cancer. METHODS The 36 haematological cancer patients from the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital were divided into myeloma or non-myeloma groups. Their Socio-demographics and clinical attributes were duly recorded. The painDETECT questionnaire (PDQ), the numeric pain rating scale (NPRS) and pain management index were deployed to evaluate their pain levels. RESULTS Approximately 67% study participants complained of pain at presentation, and 92% reported it as their worst in the past 4 weeks. A mean age of 58 years was reported among the patients. multiple myeloma was significantly associated with age (p = 0.035) performance status (p = 0.044), pain at presentation (p = 0.047), worst pain in 4 weeks (p = 0.013) and neuropathic pain (p < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, performance status (b = 0.902, p = 0.03) and use of a strong opiate (b = 25.667, p = 0.005), weak opiate (b = 15.833, p = 0.001) and age (b = 1.075, p = 0.029) had significant association with multiple myeloma. The percentage of patients receiving inadequate pain therapy (PMI < 0) was 22.2%. DISCUSSION This research shows the characteristic of pain in haematological cancer patients in Nigeria. The findings highlight the unevenly raised frequency of neuropathic pain in multiple myeloma compared to other haematological cancer. In addition, the inadequacy of pain management was also exposed.