Facemasks and Chronic Pain Patients With Hearing Loss

Facemasks may impede communication. Impaired communication may worsen healthcare outcomes. There is inadequate data on the prevalence of hearing impairment in chronic pain patients. There is inadequate information about the impact of facemasks on treatment outcomes in chronic pain patients with hearing impairment. This prospective study explores the problem of hearing impairment in chronic pain patients, and the impact of facemasks on healthcare outcomes in chronic pain patients. This is a prospective cohort study of adult patients undergoing pain treatment at an interventional pain clinic in Canada. Data collection includes patient's age, anxiety score, depression score, analgesic usage, numeric pain score, and effects of facemasks on pain management outcomes. Pain is measured using numeric pain rating scale of 0-10, with change of 2-points being considered significant. Depression is measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scale of 0-27, with change of 3-points being considered significant. Anxiety is measured using the General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale of 0-21, with change of 3-points being considered significant. Data are analyzed with IBM® SPSS® Statistics 25; using Student's t-test, ANOVA, Pearson Chi-square test, and regression analysis. P-value \<0.05 is considered significant.