A tactile pain evaluation scale for persons with visual deficiencies.

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Pain Management
• Ophthalmology

Background:

• Existing pain evaluation scales primarily rely on visual input, creating barriers for individuals with visual impairments.
• There is a lack of specialized pain assessment tools for blind or visually impaired persons.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the Visiodol tactile pain evaluation scale for use in blind or visually impaired individuals.
• To assess the correlation between the Visiodol scale and a standard numeric pain scale.

Main Methods:

• Pain intensity was measured using the Visiodol scale and a numeric pain scale in response to thermal stimuli.
• Secondary outcomes included pain thresholds, catastrophizing, emotion, and quality of life, compared between visually impaired and sighted participants.
• Statistical analysis involved Lin's concordance correlation coefficient and weighted Cohen's kappa.

Main Results:

• The Visiodol scale demonstrated good agreement with the numeric pain scale in visually impaired participants (Lin's coefficient = 0.967).
• High agreement (weighted Cohen's κ = 0.90) and percentage of agreement (92.9%) were observed for the Visiodol scale.
• Visually impaired individuals reported greater impairments in pain perception, psychological components, and quality of life compared to sighted individuals.

Conclusions:

• The Visiodol tactile scale is validated for pain assessment in blind and visually impaired individuals.
• This validation addresses healthcare inequalities by providing a much-needed tool for pain evaluation in this population.
• Further testing in larger patient populations is planned to establish Visiodol as a clinical option worldwide.