Author:
Kristin R.
Ostermueller
Master of Science in Nursing, Vanderbilt University, 1988
Assessing pain in children may be difficult due to children's undeveloped communication skills. Parental perceptions of their child's pain may be of use to health professionals in assessing children's pain.
The purpose of this study, was to examine the relationship between the hospitalized child's communication of pain and parental perception of that pain. The study was based on the family systems premise that a change in one family member will affect other family members.
The hypothesis proposed that parents can accurately perceive their child's pain. The Pearson's product-moment correlation was used for statistical analysis.
The parent and the hospitalized child were approached between one and three days postoperatively. Each person was asked to rate the child's pain on the vertical Visual Analog Scale (a lOcm vertical line) and the Faces Pain Rating Scale after receiving a standard, age-appropriate explanation.
Statistical analysis revealed a significant correlation between the child's communication of pain and parental perception of that pain on both the vertical Visual Analog Scale (r = .5306, p = .002) and the Faces Pain Rating Scale (r = .4807, p = .005)).
Additional data analysis was performed to examine results by age group. Correlations for children aged 4-7 years were lower for both the vertical Visual Analog Scale (r = .2931, p = .178) and the Faces Pain Rating Scale (r = .3831, p = .109) than the correlations for children aged 8-11 years (r = .8090, P = .001 for VAS; r = .6348, P = .004 for FPRS).
In the investigators experience, the Faces Pain Rating Scale was the preferred scale by both children and parents. It was the investigators impression that the scale measured the child's overall pain experience (i.e., how "bad" they felt) more so than the pain intensity. The Vertical Visual Analog Scale, in contrast, appeared to measure only pain intensity. The investigator did note certain amount of confusion in the younger children (less than 7 years) when the Visual Analog Scale was explained.
March 15, 2002
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