Prevalence of pain, analgesic self-medication and mental health in German pre-hospital emergency medical service personnel: a nationwide survey pilot-study

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of pain, the extent of analgesics intake and the mental health status of German pre-hospital emergency medical service (EMS) personnel. METHODS: We conducted a nationwide online survey, which consisted of sociodemographic and job-related items, questions on pain and analgesics intake and the short-version of the validated Depression–Anxiety–Stress Scale (DASS-21). RESULTS: A total of 774 EMS personnel with a mean age of 33.03 (standard error [SE] 0.37) years were included into the final analysis of which 23.77% were female. Pain was reported by 58.64% (454 of 774) of the study participants with 10.72% (95% confidence interval [CI] 8.54%; 13.29%) suffering from chronic, 1.68% (95% CI 0.89%; 2.87%) from acute and 46.25% (95% CI 41.49%; 51.30%) from recurrent pain, respectively. Most frequent location of pain was lumbar spine. Analgesics were used by 52.76% (239 of 454) of pre-hospital EMS personnel with pain (acute 76.92% / chronic 69.88% / recurrent 47.90%). Moreover, participants with chronic and recurrent pain indicated significantly higher depression (p ≤ 0.001), anxiety (p ≤ 0.001), and stress (p ≤ 0.001) levels compared to those without pain, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study indicates a high prevalence of pain and analgesics usage in participating German pre-hospital EMS personnel and a poorer mental health in those with chronic and recurrent pain. Therefore, disease prevention and health promotion measures are needed to preserve health of pre-hospital EMS personnel.