Do men and women have different perceptions of pain?

To evaluate possible differences between men and women's perception of a painful stimulus (venous puncture). Transversal, analytic and observational study.Setting. Primary care.Participants. 709 people over 14 who attended three health centres for blood extraction. 98 cases were rejected (most...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Atención primaria 2003-01, Vol.31 (1), p.18-22
Main Authors: López de Castro, F, Rodríguez Alcalá, F J, Méndez Gallego, I, Mancebo Pardo, R, Gómez Calcerrada, R
Format: Article
Language:Spanish
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Pain Measurement
Pain Threshold
Sex Characteristics
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Summary:To evaluate possible differences between men and women's perception of a painful stimulus (venous puncture). Transversal, analytic and observational study.Setting. Primary care.Participants. 709 people over 14 who attended three health centres for blood extraction. 98 cases were rejected (most because they received more than one puncture). Age, sex, tobacco habit, perception of pain (through visual analogic scale from 1 to 10), complaints expressed (oral and/or by gestures) and patient's prior expectations. Mean age: 47.4; 60.1% women. The intensity of pain had an average of 1.35 (SD, 1.60; mode, 0; median, 0.8). 14.7% expressed a complaint. Median of pain was 0.95 (Q3-Q1, 1.9-0.4) in men, whereas it was 0.70 (Q3-Q1, 1.725-0.3) in women (U=40.48; P=.095). No correlation was found between valuation of pain and age (R=0.055). No differences were found for smokers (median, 0.925; Q3-Q1, 1.725-0.35) or non-smokers (0.75; 1.825-0.325) (P.05). There were statistically significant valuations that varied according to the prior expectations of pain. Equally, pain was assessed as more intense by those who expressed a complaint (median, 2.1; Q3-Q1, 3.85-0.475) versus those who did not (0.625; 1.55-0.3) (P
ISSN:0212-6567