Eighth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Engaging activities that distract attention from pain is one of the most commonly used and highly endorsed strategies for controlling pain. We surveyed 248 subjects between the ages of 20-80 with 10 questions addressing hours per day spent watching television, hours of sleep, presence or absence of acute and/or chronic pain, and if their pain and mood changed during or once they had finished watching television. The majority of the subjects were between 40 and 70 years of age and 82% mentioned chronic pain. The average hours of television watched increased at one hour per decade. The majority watched television until 10PM and participants older than 40 slept an average of fewer than 6 hours a day. The majority of subjects (83%) mentioned no change in their pain or mood while watching TV. Interestingly, younger participants mentioned that their mood got worse and the only group that had an improvement in their mood were people over age 70. In conclusion, although we were not able to find any significant difference, the trends we saw in the geriatric group would warrant further research geared to this population.