1. Prevalence of pain, analgesic self-medication and mental health in German pre-hospital emergency medical service personnel: a nationwide survey pilot-study.
- Author
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Möckel L, Gerhard A, Mohr M, Armbrust CI, and Möckel C
- Subjects
- Adult, Anxiety epidemiology, Depression epidemiology, Emergency Medical Services, Female, Germany epidemiology, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Pilot Projects, Prevalence, Stress, Psychological epidemiology, Surveys and Questionnaires, Analgesics therapeutic use, Emergency Medical Technicians psychology, Pain drug therapy, Pain epidemiology, Self Medication statistics & numerical data
- Abstract
Purpose: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of pain, the extent of analgesics intake and the mental health status of German pre-hospital emergency medical service (EMS) personnel., Methods: We conducted a nationwide online survey, which consisted of sociodemographic and job-related items, questions on pain and analgesics intake and the short-version of the validated Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale (DASS-21)., Results: A total of 774 EMS personnel with a mean age of 33.03 (standard error [SE] 0.37) years were included into the final analysis of which 23.77% were female. Pain was reported by 58.64% (454 of 774) of the study participants with 10.72% (95% confidence interval [CI] 8.54%; 13.29%) suffering from chronic, 1.68% (95% CI 0.89%; 2.87%) from acute and 46.25% (95% CI 41.49%; 51.30%) from recurrent pain, respectively. Most frequent location of pain was lumbar spine. Analgesics were used by 52.76% (239 of 454) of pre-hospital EMS personnel with pain (acute 76.92% / chronic 69.88% / recurrent 47.90%). Moreover, participants with chronic and recurrent pain indicated significantly higher depression (p ≤ 0.001), anxiety (p ≤ 0.001), and stress (p ≤ 0.001) levels compared to those without pain, respectively., Conclusion: This study indicates a high prevalence of pain and analgesics usage in participating German pre-hospital EMS personnel and a poorer mental health in those with chronic and recurrent pain. Therefore, disease prevention and health promotion measures are needed to preserve health of pre-hospital EMS personnel., (© 2021. The Author(s).)
- Published
- 2021
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