Assessing childrenʼs responses to pain

Abstract

This study explored children''s self-assessment of the pain experience. Using a 10 cm scale with the ends marked ''I have no pain'' and'' ''I have very severe pain,'' school-age children rated pain severity. The pain scale responses were related to physiologic parameters: body, facial and vocal indicators of pain; and word descriptors of pain while controlling for the effects of medications given. Both the magnitude of chi-square values and the measures of association supported the validity of the pain scale as an indicator of the pain level of school-age children.