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Related Experiment Videos

A new analogue scale for assessing children's pain: an initial validation study

Patricia A McGrath1, Cheryl E Seifert, Kathy N Speechley

  • 1Pediatric Pain Program, University of Western Ontario, Canada Epidemiology Program, Child Health Research Institute and Department of Pediatrics, University of Western Ontario, Canada Department of Communicative Disorders, University of Western Ontario, Canada Biostatistical Resource, Child Health Research Institute, Canada Department of Psychology, Parkwood Hospital, London, Ontario, Canada.

Pain
|March 1, 1996
PubMed
Summary

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A new Coloured Analogue Scale (CAS) for children

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Pain Assessment
  • Psychometrics
  • Clinical Measurement

Background:

  • Assessing pain in children requires reliable and valid clinical instruments.
  • Existing visual analogue scales (VAS) are effective but can be cumbersome for routine clinical use.
  • A novel pocket-sized instrument, the Coloured Analogue Scale (CAS), was developed for assessing children's pain intensity and affect.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the validity of the CAS by evaluating its psychophysical properties and discriminant validity.
  • To compare the CAS with established visual analogue scales (VAS) in a pediatric population.
  • To assess the practicality of the CAS for clinical administration and scoring.

Main Methods:

  • A parallel groups design randomized 104 children (ages 5-16) to either the CAS or VAS group.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Participants completed a calibration task rating circle sizes to evaluate psychophysical properties.
  • Children also rated the intensity and affect of painful events using the Children's Pain Inventory (CPI).

    • Main Results:

    • The CAS demonstrated equivalent psychometric properties to the VAS in terms of psychophysical relationships and discriminant validity.
    • No significant differences were found in intensity or affective ratings between the CAS and VAS groups.
    • The CAS was rated as easier to administer and score than the VAS.

    Conclusions:

    • The Coloured Analogue Scale (CAS) is a valid and reliable measure for assessing pediatric pain intensity and affect.
    • The CAS offers practical advantages over VAS, making it suitable for routine clinical application.
    • Further validation through construct validity testing in diverse clinical populations is recommended.