Development of a Mobile Digital Manikin to Measure Pain Location and Intensity

Painful conditions are prevalent and substantially contribute to disability worldwide. Digital manikins are body-shaped drawings to facilitate self-reporting of pain. Some of them have been validated, but without allowing for recording of location-specific pain intensity and for use on a smartphone. This paper describes the initial development of a digital pain manikin to support self-reporting of pain location and location-specific intensity using people's own mobile device. Subsequently, we conducted reliability and usability tests with eight researchers and seven patient representatives. Test-retest reliability depended on the manikin's level of detail, but was generally high with most intraclass correlation coefficients âĽě0.70 and all similarity coefficients âĽě0.50. Participants found the manikin easy to use, but suggested clearer orientation (front/back, certain body locations) and would value additional feedback and diary functions. We will address these issues in the next version of the manikin before conducting a validation study.