Measuring Pain in Homeless People

Becky Matter, MA, Susan Kline, MN ARNP

Background:

Homeless people often suffer from health problems that cause long term pain. These problems such as arthritis, heart disease, or infections, tend to go untreated due to the lack health insurance, money and transportation. Homeless advocates and health care providers have identified pain and homelessness as an important and complex topic that has not received adequate attention among the research community.

Goal:

The goal of this study is to improve survey questions on pain for use clinical research and practice with homeless people. Also, we hope to increase understanding of the unique experiences of homeless people with pain, particularly of the problems they often face when trying to get health care.

The Study:

17 homeless people participated in face-to-face interviews at Seattle’s downtown public library. They shared their unique opinions about pain survey questions and described their experience trying to get treatment and relief for their pain. In order to be included in the study, they needed to have a diagnosis of a disability or ongoing health problem, and to have been homeless for at least 3 months.

Results:

The survey questionnaires used to measure pain did not work well with homeless people. Many s urvey questions caused problems for the homeless participants because they did not apply to their lives. An example of this kind of question is one that asks about how pain interferes with housework. In addition, most participants described difficulties getting health care for their pain. In the future, more research must be done to to address the unique needs of homeless individuals with pain. Our study found that involving homeless people in research is doable and informative.