A similar Database field works OK here, except I removed \*MERGEFORMAT which
you do not need.

Questions - neither of the following two things seems likely but they are
the only things I can think of right now:
a. Are the {} around the PAGE field the ordinary {} you can type on the
keyboard? If so, they will not work - use ctrl-F9 to insert a pair of the
special field code braces and type PAGE in between them.
b. What is the result of the { PAGE } field (e.g. if you execute such a
field outside the { DATABASE } field? If the result is something like 2-5 or
iii then the comparison will not work as you expect - in that case, you
might need to change the format of your page numbers or use a different
formatting switch such as \*Arabic to return a number. If you are expecting
the result to be (say) 1, ensure { PAGE } actually returns 1 and not 0. If
there is no record where PageNumber = 0 the DATABASE field will fail.

It looks to me as if you are probably using Word 2000 or earlier and/or
connecting using DDE, but if none of the above helps, which version of Word
are you using?