Problem: The study was conducted to assess the severity of pain experienced by adult male subjects during intramuscular injection in a tertiary care hospital in Jammu and Kashmir. The objectives of the study were to assess the pain level perceived by the subjects and to examine the relationship between selected demographic variables and pain perception.

Materials and Methods: The approach used for the study was quantitative exploratory design. Thirty healthy male subjects receiving the first dose of prophylactic rabies injection were selected from in-patient wards and out-patient injection room through purposive sampling. The tools were a semi-structured questionnaire regarding demographic data and numerical pain scale to assess the pain level of the subjects during intramuscular injection, recorded immediately after the completion of the injection. The demographic profile selected was age, educational qualification, and economic status. The data was collected over a period of two months from the injection room and the wards from those patients who reported for rabies vaccination as part of post exposure prophylaxis.

Major findings: On analysis of the data, it was seen that all the subjects experienced moderate pain during the injection as per the standard technique without any of the non-pharmacological interventions. The average pain score and SD of the group were found to be 4.13±0.21. Selected demographic parameters were examined to identify relationship with pain scores. Age of the participants was found to have statistically significant association with severity of pain levels. The younger age group subjects were found to experience more pain (mean value 4.17±0.14) as compared to the elder age group patients (mean value 4.04±0.16)with a Z value of 1.99 and p-value of <0.05. No relationship could be established between pain perception and educational level or economic status.

Conclusion: The study found that all the subjects experienced moderate pain during intramuscular injection using the standard technique, and hence it is advisable to institute non-pharmacological measures for reducing procedural pain during needle procedures, so that patient experience less pain and will be more compliant to health care services.