Objective:

To compare the information obtained of the percentage of improvement declared orally with the improvement marked in the visual analogical scale (VAS) in patients under and over 65 years of age.

Patients and methods:

Ninety-five individuals with acute shoulder pain (enthesitis) were evaluated. The subjects were requested to mark the pain intensity in the VAS before a treatment with corticosteroid injection in the shoulder and were evaluated again through the VAS one week after the procedure. They were also requested to declare orally the pain intensity. Then, the information was compared between patients aged under and over 65 years of age.

Results:

29.8% of those younger than 65 years, and 60.95% of those older than that age presented more than 10% difference between orally stated and calculated pain relief percentage based on the VSA.

Conclusion:

The difference between the orally stated and the calculated pain relief percentage based on the VSA was significantly higher in the group of those older than 65 years. This finding proved that the VAS is a poor method to evaluate pain relief in the senior population.