Multidimensional experience of pain in adults with cirrhosis: A qualitative descriptive study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The incidence of liver disease is projected to increase significantly by 2030, affecting 1.5 billion of the global population and approximately 3 million in Canada. With various etiologies, the progression of liver disease to cirrhosis varies from months, years, or decades. Experiencing pain can severely debilitate a person living with this condition. However, there is limited qualitative evidence to understand the subjective pain experience of individuals with cirrhosis. Understanding this experience with cirrhosis is crucial for providing comprehensive, person-centered care. The aim of this study was to qualitatively explore the multidimensional experience of pain for persons with cirrhosis. A qualitative descriptive approach was used, recruiting participants from a hepatology clinic in Toronto in 2021. Participants completed a Brief Pain Inventory Short Form questionnaire and a semistructured interview. Data analysis was guided by Hsieh and Shannon's stepwise directed content analysis. Fifteen interviews were conducted with adults (mean age: 54 years, 53% men, 47% women) with cirrhosis, most unable to work, with approximately half married/partnered. Participants reported diverse physical symptoms including visceral and musculoskeletal pain, often described as a constant experience. Psychologically, pain contributed to significant fatigue and emotional distress, affecting self-care and daily activities. Socioculturally, pain disrupted social interactions and financial stability, intensifying reliance on support systems. Participants reported limited effectiveness of pharmacological interventions, reliance on mindfulness and rest, and frustration with unmet pain management needs. These interrelated themes collectively impaired quality of life and independence. Exploring the multidimensionality of pain for persons with cirrhosis provides valuable insights to address the gaps in current pain management strategies.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".