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Digital tools for assessing chronic pain in children (5-11 years): Systematic review
Amberly Brigden1, Megha Garg2, Mairi Deighan1
1Digital Health, School of Computer Science, Electrical and Electronic Engineering University of Bristol Bristol UK.
Insights
Digital tools for assessing chronic pain in children aged 5-11 are limited. This review found few options, but identified technologies for capturing longitudinal pain data, aiding research and clinical management.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Digital Health Technologies
- Pain Management
Background:
- Pediatric chronic pain significantly impacts children, families, and healthcare systems.
- Effective pain measurement is crucial for clinical care and research.
- Existing digital pain assessment tools are primarily for adults and adolescents, with less known about their use in younger children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically identify, describe, and evaluate the acceptability of digital tools for assessing chronic pain in children aged 5-11 years.
- To understand the landscape of digital pain measurement in this specific pediatric population.
Main Methods:
- A systematic review was conducted searching five databases (Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL) from January 2014 to January 2022.
- Included studies focused on digital tool use for chronic pain assessment in children aged 5-11.
- PRISMA guidelines were followed for reporting, with independent double-screening of papers.
Main Results:
- Five papers, detailing four digital tools, were included in the review.
- Tools varied from online surveys to interactive tablet applications, with features like dynamic testing, notifications, and remote monitoring.
- Only one tool provided qualitative usability data, indicating acceptability and highlighting preferred features for children (creativity, personalization, gamification) and parents (symptom tracking).
Conclusions:
- There is a limited number of digital assessment tools for pediatric chronic pain in the 5-11 age group.
- The reviewed technologies show potential for capturing longitudinal, multi-dimensional pain data (intensity, location, quality).
- Further research is needed to develop and evaluate digital pain assessment tools for this population.
Abstract:
Pediatric chronic pain places a significant burden on children, their families, and healthcare services. Effective pain measurement is needed for both clinical management and research. Digital pain measurement tools have been developed for adult and adolescent populations however less is known about measurement in younger children. In this systematic review, we aimed to identify, describe, and evaluate (in terms of acceptability) digital tools for the assessment of chronic pain in children (5-11 years). We searched five databases (Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and CINAHL), between January 2014 and January 2022. We included empirical studies which included digital tool/s to assess pain in children aged between 5-11 years with chronic pain conditions. We independently double-screened the papers to determine eligibility. We followed PRISMA guidelines for reporting. A total of five papers, covering four digital tools, were included. The digital tools used ranged from a static online survey to a highly interactive, personalized tablet application. Two studies were cross-sectional and two collected longitudinal pain data via electronic devices outside the clinical setting. Digital features of the tools included: dynamic testing (n = 2), notifications/prompts (n = 1), data transmission (n = 1), remote monitoring (n = 1), accessibility (n = 1), data visualization/feedback (n = 1), personalization/customization (n = 1), gamification (n = 1) and data labeling (n = 1). Qualitative usability data was only available for one of the tools, which indicated its acceptability and highlighted preferred features/functions by child users (creative and personalizable features, gamification features), and parental users (symptom tracking). This review has highlighted the limited number of digital assessment tools available for children with chronic pain aged 5-11. This review identified some examples of technology enabling the capture of longitudinal, repeated measurement of multiple dimensions of pain (intensity, location, quality). We suggest directions for future research.
