[Pain in children and adolescents--results of an exploratory epidemiological study]

The objective of this exploratory study was to examine the prevalence of overall pain generally and combinations of different pain locations, as well as their location, intensity, and duration in children and adolescents.

After consent was granted by the local ethical committee and the Ministry for Education, Research, Science and Culture, modified versions of the structured pain questionnaire of Perquin et al. were submitted to 1077 parents, children,and adolescents in the Lübeck region of Germany. Of the 1077 questionnaires distributed, 1030 were returned (95.6%), and 991 of the 1030 questionnaires (96.2%) could be included in the analysis.

The prevalence of overall pain during the preceding 3 months was 80.1%, while the prevalence of pain in more than one region of the body during the preceding 3 months was 66.3%. Of the children and adolescents, 57% had headaches, 43.2% suffered from abdominal pain, 41.6% had limb pain, 32.9% had back pain, and 30% suffered from sore throats during the previous 3 months. A total of 30.7% of the children and adolescents with pain reported that the pain had already lasted for more than 6 months.

Pain in general is very frequent in children and adolescents. Further studies are required to investigate chronic pain in children and adolescents.