Haemoglobin has no influence on pain perception of undergraduate students in Ilorin, North-Central, Nigeria
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Date
2024-10-21
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African Science Publications
Abstract
Pain perception is influenced by various factors, including genetics, awareness, age, gender, and environmental factors (Hussain and Karim, 2019). This study aimed to determine if hemoglobin genotype variability affects human perception of pain. 208 participants aged 17-45 years from the University of Ilorin were recruited using purposive sampling. The participants were counselled and verbal consent was gotten from them before the procedure. Pain threshold and tolerance were assessed using the cold pressor test. 5mls of blood was drawn from antecubital vein and stored in Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) bottles at 2⁰-6⁰C until hemoglobin electrophoresis was carried out. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 28.0 and presented as mean ± SD, median IQR, frequency as well as percentages and p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Sociodemographic results showed that 2.4% of participants were older than 35 years, 97.6% are unmarried and 85.6% are Yoruba. Hemoglobin electrophoresis revealed that 64% of participants were HbAA, 28.8% HbAS, 4.8% HbSS, and 2.4% HbAC. No significant variation was found in pain threshold between genotypes, though participants with the HbAS genotype had the highest pain threshold and the lowest pain tolerance, this warrants further investigation in larger sample. Higher pain threshold and tolerance may be conferred by HbS and HbC characteristics.
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Hemoglobin Genotype; Pain Perception; Pain Threshold; Pain Tolerance.