Identifying Chronic Pain Subgroups in Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease: A Cluster-Analytic Approach

Youth with sickle cell disease (SCD) and chronic pain, defined in this study as pain on most days for 3 months, experience variability in daily pain and physical and psychosocial functioning. This study aimed to (1) empirically derive chronic pain subgroups based on pain characteristics among youth with chronic SCD pain; and (2) investigate derived subgroups for differences in sociodemographics, clinical characteristics, and psychosocial and functional outcomes.

Youth with chronic SCD pain (n=62, Mage =13.9, SD=2.5, 10 to 18 y; 58% female, 60% HbSS) completed a battery of questionnaires. Clinical characteristics (eg, medications, treatments) and health care utilization were abstracted from electronic medical records. Hierarchical cluster analysis informed the number of clusters at the patient level. k-means cluster analysis used multidimensional pain assessment to identify and assign patients to clusters.

Cluster 1 (n=35; Moderate Frequency, Moderate Pain) demonstrated significantly lower worst pain intensity, number of pain days per month, number of body sites affected by pain, and pain quality ratings. Cluster 2 (n=27; Almost Daily, High Pain) reported high ratings of worst pain intensity, almost daily to daily pain, greater number of body sites affected by pain, and higher ratings of pain quality (all P 's <0.05). There were no differences between subgroups by sociodemographics, clinical characteristics, or health care utilization. The Almost Daily, High Pain subgroup reported significantly higher pain interference, depressive symptoms, and pain catastrophizing than the Moderate Frequency, Moderate Pain subgroup.

Identifying chronic SCD pain subgroups may inform tailored assessment and intervention to mitigate poor pain and functional outcomes.