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Can computer-based assessment help us understand children's pain?
R M Calam1, P Jimmieson, A D Cox
1School of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, University of Manchester, Withington Hospital, West Didsbury, UK.
Insights
This study introduces a new computer-assisted pain assessment tool for children. This innovative method allows children to visually report pain intensity, type, and associated emotions, improving self-reporting accuracy.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Pain Management
- Child Psychology
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Accurate self-report of pain in children is crucial, as external observers often underestimate pain intensity.
- Existing methods may not fully capture the nuances of children's pain experiences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and describe a novel computer-assisted approach for assessing pain in children.
- To enhance the accuracy and depth of children's pain self-reporting.
Main Methods:
- Development of a computer program allowing children to use body maps to indicate pain location and type.
- Inclusion of scales for rating pain intensity and 'throb' or emotional intensity.
- Integration of facial emotion representation and 'pain pages' for tracking changes over time.
Main Results:
- The system enables children to visually represent various pain types and intensities on body maps.
- The program facilitates the tracking of pain changes over time through cumulative records.
- Facial expressions and retrospective accounts can be incorporated, offering a comprehensive pain profile.
Conclusions:
- The computer-assisted approach offers a promising method for improving children's pain self-reporting.
- Potential applications include aiding communication with children who have difficulty verbalizing pain.
- Further research directions are outlined for refining and validating this assessment tool.
Abstract:
Good measures for self-report of pain in children are important, particularly as other informants tend to underestimate children's pain. This paper describes the development of a new computer-assisted approach to assessment of pain in children. The child can represent a range of different types of pains on body maps, and use two scales to indicate the size of the pain and the 'throb' or intensity. Facial expressions of associated emotions can also be incorporated into the figure. A series of 'pain pages' is included in the program. The pages allow changes in pain to be tracked over time, building up a cumulative record. The child can also report on different experiences and give retrospective accounts. Potential applications are suggested, for example in facilitating communication with children who find it difficult to give a clear verbal account of their pain, due to emotional difficulties, language or disability. Research directions are outlined.