The EVENDOL Pain Scale Validation for Acute Non-Procedural Neonatal Pain in Term Neonates: Reliability and Validity...

Area of Science:

• Neonatal care
• Pain assessment
• Clinical validation

Background:

• Assessing acute non-procedural pain in term neonates is challenging in maternity settings.
• Current pain scales can be difficult to select and time-consuming, potentially leading to inadequate pain management.
• The Echelle Douleur et Inconfort du Nouveau-né (EDIN) scale is a commonly used reference for neonatal pain assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the EValuation ENfant DOuLeur (EVENDOL) pain scale for acute non-procedural pain in term neonates.
• To compare the EVENDOL scale's performance against the established EDIN scale.
• To evaluate the feasibility and ease of use of the EVENDOL scale for researchers and caregivers.

Main Methods:

• A prospective, multicentric, non-interventional study involving term neonates (over 37 weeks gestation).
• Pain assessment using both EVENDOL and EDIN scales at rest and during mobilization, before and after analgesia (oral paracetamol).
• Psychometric properties including Cronbach's α coefficient and intraclass correlation (ICC) were calculated.

Main Results:

• Ninety-one neonates were included; 48 experienced pain. EVENDOL demonstrated good psychometric properties (Cronbach's α > 0.80, ICCs ranging from 0.77-0.93) before analgesia.
• Post-analgesia, psychometric values remained good (Cronbach's α > 0.80, ICCs ranging from 0.26-0.91).
• EVENDOL showed superior feasibility and ease of use compared to EDIN for both researchers and caregivers.

Conclusions:

• The EVENDOL scale is a suitable and validated tool for assessing acute non-procedural pain in term neonates within maternity wards.
• EVENDOL offers comparable validity to the EDIN scale with improved usability.
• This validation supports enhanced neonatal pain management practices in clinical settings.