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The facial affective scale as a predictor for pain unpleasantness when children undergo immunizations
Stefan Nilsson1, Berit Finnström2, Evalotte Mörelius3
1School of Health Sciences, University of Borås, 501 90 Borås, Sweden ; Institute of Health and Care Sciences, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 457, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden.
Insights
The Facial Affective Scale (FAS) can predict pain unpleasantness in young girls during immunizations. This tool helps identify children needing extra support for vaccination procedures.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nursing
- Pain Management
- Psychological Assessment
Background:
- Needle fear is a significant challenge during childhood immunizations.
- Predicting children's need for support during painful procedures is crucial for effective care.
- The Facial Affective Scale (FAS) is a self-reporting tool with potential for assessing emotional states.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the predictive validity of the FAS for pain unpleasantness in girls aged 11-12 years undergoing immunization.
- To determine if the FAS can identify children requiring additional support during vaccinations.
Main Methods:
- Girls (11-12 years) completed the FAS to report expected pain unpleasantness.
- Experienced pain unpleasantness was recorded before and after each immunization.
- Anxiety levels and stress measures were assessed concurrently to evaluate validity.
Main Results:
- The FAS demonstrated validity in predicting pain unpleasantness in 11-12-year-old girls during immunizations.
- The FAS shows potential as a feasible instrument for identifying children needing extra support.
- Concurrent validity was supported by anxiety and stress measure assessments.
Conclusions:
- The FAS is a valid tool for predicting pain unpleasantness in young girls during immunizations.
- The FAS can facilitate targeted caring interventions by identifying children in need of extra support.
- Utilizing the FAS can improve the management of needle fear and pain in pediatric populations.
Abstract:
Needle fear is a common problem in children undergoing immunization. To ensure that the individual child's needs are met during a painful procedure it would be beneficial to be able to predict whether there is a need for extra support. The self-reporting instrument facial affective scale (FAS) could have potential for this purpose. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the FAS can predict pain unpleasantness in girls undergoing immunization. Girls, aged 11-12 years, reported their expected pain unpleasantness on the FAS at least two weeks before and then experienced pain unpleasantness immediately before each vaccination. The experienced pain unpleasantness during the vaccination was also reported immediately after each immunization. The level of anxiety was similarly assessed during each vaccination and supplemented with stress measures in relation to the procedure in order to assess and evaluate concurrent validity. The results show that the FAS is valid to predict pain unpleasantness in 11-12-year-old girls who undergo immunizations and that it has the potential to be a feasible instrument to identify children who are in need of extra support to cope with immunization. In conclusion, the FAS measurement can facilitate caring interventions.
