Cultural and psychological determinants of pain assessment during lower limb angioplasty

Introduction. It is a common unofficial perception of surgeons performing endovascular operations that patients living in the different social and economic environment assess pain differently during peripheral angioplasty procedures. The objective was to examine the differences in assessing pain experienced during endovascular arterial interventions on lower limbs, by Polish and German patients, and to analyse the psychological determinants of the assumed differences, by referring to mental dispositions such as optimism and satisfaction with own life quality. Material and methods. 101 patients were qualified for endovascular intervention on lower limbs arteries — 51 Germans (M = 67.31; SD = 9.82) and 50 Poles (age M = 67.88; SD = 8.4). 37 women and 64 men were classified as Rutherford category 2–3. Three scales were applied: 1. Life Orientation Test-Revised 2. Satisfaction With Life Scale 3. Pain Appraisal Scale which comprises emoticons showing subsequent degrees of sustained pain and the corresponding Visual Analogue Scale. Results. The patients from Poland graded their life quality lower than the German patients (M = 23.44; SD = 5.977 and M = 25.94; SD = 5.584). The Poles presented a lower level of optimism (M = 15.04; SD = 3.703 vs M = 15.8; SD = 3.516). The Polish patients classified the level of pain during lower limb angioplasty as higher than in German patients (M = 4.22; SD = 2.999 and M = 2.88; SD = 2.215) (p < 0.012). Conclusions. Resistance to pain experienced during endovascular procedures probably depends on the assessment of the patient’s current life situation, determined by satisfaction with own life quality and related optimism. With great caution, it might also be supposed that resistance to pain depends on the life standard typical of a given population