Pain Prevalence, Pain Management, and the Need for Pain Education in Healthcare Undergraduates

Background: Pain is a common health problem in undergraduate students. Pain prevalence, pain management strategies and knowledge among healthcare groups has not been revealed yet.

Aim: This study explored pain prevalence, intensity, pain management strategies, knowledge, and education in undergraduate students specializing in healthcare science. The findings will highlight the necessity for increasing pain management education in the university setting.

Design: A questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study was conducted.

Settings/ participants: Data was collected from 1,490 university students in Tokyo between December 2015 and April 2016. A χ square test was performed to examine differences in pain status and management strategies according to gender. We compared medical knowledge scores among disciplines using one-way analysis of variance.

Results: In total, 511 (79.2%) students had experienced bodily pain during the preceding 6 months. Pain prevalence differed by gender. More nursing students had used both pharmacological and nonpharmacological methods for pain management than had students from other disciplines (p = .011). Pain medication knowledge of students in other disciplines was low to moderate, with greater knowledge observed in medical students (p < .05).

Conclusions: Education regarding pain management should be developed that considers differences among disciplines. Additionally, poor pain management knowledge could affect the quality of care students provide to patients after graduation. Enhancing pain management knowledge by providing suitable pain management education in universities may contribute to better pain management for students, and this may translate to their work in clinical settings.