Pain Coping Strategies and Their Associated Factors among Adult Oncology Patients Admitted at Kenyatta National Hospital

Abstract

BACKGROUND Physical and emotional stressors such as pain are common among patients with incurable cancer, yet little is known regarding their coping strategies and the associated factors. This study aimed to determine the pain coping strategies and their associated factors among adult oncology patients admitted at Kenyatta National Hospital.

METHODOLOGY This study employed a mixed-method approach, combining a quantitative descriptive survey with qualitative focus group discussions to understand pain coping strategies and their associated factors. A focus group discussion (FGD) with purposive sampling was conducted with 9 patients.

RESULTS Age, gender, household income, and residence were significantly associated with a specific number of coping strategies, including positive refrain (p=0.045), preference for emotional support (p= 0.025), and behavioural disengagement (p= 0.005), acceptance (p=0.020), denial (p= 0.026), and positive refrain (p= 0.006) respectively since (p<0.05) was considered significant.

CONCLUSION Pain significantly influences the type of coping strategy used by cancer patients. The findings reveal that sociodemographic factors such as gender, income, and residence impact strategy selection, underscoring the need for individualised pain management approaches.

RECOMMENDATIONS There is a need to embrace non-pharmacological coping strategies. Further, it is critical to assess patients' attitudes and perceptions towards the existing non-pharmacological pain coping strategies as these individual factors, together with the outlined sociodemographic factors, are known to impact their utilisation significantly.