Background and aims: Chronic pain is a public health priority worldwide. It is characterized with high prevalence in hospitalized cancer and palliative patients in Georgia, however scarce data is available on chronic pain in ambulatory patients.
Methods: Cross-sectional survey aimed to study chronic pain prevalence, epidemiological patterns and impact on health-related quality of life (HRCoL) in 280 randomly selected patients in one of the outpatient clinics of the capital city during 2017. IASP and SF-36 questionnaires, adjusted to the national peculiarities and the numeric pain scale were employed. Results were processed for significance.
Results: Age ranged from 20 to 84, median was 31. Chronic pain prevalence was 27% (95% CI 22.15% - 35.65%, P< 0.005). 84% of patients were of productive ages. Over 50% were females. Headache (30%), low back pain (23,3%) and knee pain (23,3%) dominated among patients. 93.3% of the study subjects suffered of severe pain upon referral to the clinic. Over 40.0% - had a history of chronic pain for 5 years and more. Due to unrelieved pain every forth patient had to refer to family physician 2-3 times per year. Chronic pain had a serious impact on HRCoL, in particular on work ability and everyday activity (rs=-0.593 p=0.005), sleep (rs=-0.393 p=0.001), however it did not correlate with social attitudes and eating behavior.
Conclusions: 1. Chronic pain prevalence is high in outpatients; 2. Unrelieved pain is the main cause of frequent referral to family physicians; 3. Pain prevails in patients of active ages, having impact on HRCoL.

PATTERNS OF CHRONIC PAIN IN OUTPATIENTS