Prevalence of neurocognitive impairments in adults with chronic pain: A cross-sectional study

Background: There is a strong link between chronic pain and neurocognitive impairment. The co-occurrence of the two disorders often leads to a poor quality of life and significant disability.Aim: To determine the prevalence of neurocognitive impairments in adults with chronic pain.Setting: The study was conducted at a tertiary hospital in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at a pain clinic within a tertiary hospital in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. Participants were required to be clinic attendees, proficient in English, and have a minimum of a Grade 7 education. Exclusion criteria included neurological disorders, significant language barriers, or ineligible age. Recruitment used purposive sampling with informed consent. Data were collected using socio-demographic and clinical questionnaires, namely, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and the Physical Self-Maintenance Scale (PSMS). The primary outcome was the prevalence of neurocognitive impairment; secondary outcomes examined associations with demographic and clinical factors using both descriptive and inferential statistics.Results: A total of 105 participants (59 females and 46 males) were enrolled in the study. The mean age of the participants was 55.1 ± 6.75 years. A total of 73.3% (n = 77) of participants screened positive for neurocognitive impairment on MoCA and 55.2% on MMSE.Conclusion: Chronic pain is associated with impairments in neurocognitive performance, particularly in short-term memory and executive functioning.Contribution: A significant correlation was found between lower education levels and neurocognitive impairment (p = 0.02 for MoCA, p = 0.04 for MMSE).