Abstract

LOPEZ, Lucero; BARRETO ZORZA, Yenny Marcela  and  MALUCHE, Alexandra. Pain in elderly afro-descendants: qualitative results of a culturally adapted home program. Index Enferm [online]. 2014, vol.23, n.3, pp.162-166. ISSN 1699-5988.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S1132-12962014000200010.

Objective: To describe qualitative results of a culturally adapted home program on pain in an elderly Afro-descendants in Guapi-Colombia. Methodology: 47 people, in a poverty and disability situation, participated in this program. The program consisted of six home visits with an interval of 15 days. Home visits were performed by nurses trained in gerontology, geriatrics and cultural competence. It was an ethnographic participant-observation work recorded in field notebooks that allowed monitoring, development and evaluation of the pain. Analysis developed in an inductively and interpretative way. Results: Two categories emerged: pain in the Guapireña jargon and loosening the pain. The first one shows pain expressions and naming body parts. The second one shows syncretism between biomedical and cultural practices. The age of the participants ranged between 60 and 100 years. At the beginning of the program, 100% of the population had some kind of pain: 45 (96%) moderate pain and 2 (4%) mild pain. At the end, 34 (72%) reported no pain and 13 (28%) mild pain. Conclusions: The actions, culturally adapted for pain management and control, contribute to answer a complex experience, permeated by multiple variables. This supplies scientific knowledge to reduce disparities in pain management of people from different cultural backgrounds.

Keywords : Pain; Culture; Cultural competence.