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Pain Control and Parent Mental Health Among Pediatric Inpatients

Andrew Barnes1, Ashley Tollefson2, Patricia Hickey3

  • 1Department of Pediatrics and drbarnes@umn.edu.

Hospital Pediatrics
|February 9, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Poor pain control in hospitalized children is linked to parental mental health. Higher parental anxiety and depression correlate with worse pain management for children, emphasizing the need for parental support.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric healthcare research
  • Clinical psychology
  • Pain management

Background:

  • Inadequate pain management affects over half of hospitalized children, diminishing their quality of life.
  • Understanding the interplay between child pain and parental psychological factors is crucial for improving care.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between inpatient pain control and psychological factors in children and parents.
  • To test hypotheses linking pain control to child executive function, parent mindfulness, and parent mental health symptoms.

Main Methods:

  • Observational study involving 81 pediatric inpatients.
  • Data collected on nurse-recorded pain scores, child executive function, and parental mindfulness and mental health.
  • Linear mixed models used to analyze associations with pain scores over time.

Main Results:

  • Pain control was significantly associated with time and baseline pain levels.
  • Parental anxiety and depression were significantly related to poorer pain control in children.
  • Child age, gender, and parent education were adjusted for in the analysis.

Conclusions:

  • Worsening child pain control is associated with increased parental anxiety and depression.
  • Highlights the critical need for mental health resources for parents of hospitalized children experiencing pain.
Abstract

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