ArticleEmergency medicine journal : EMJ2017
A comparison of pain assessment by physicians, parents and children in an outpatient setting.
Article in Emergency medicine journal : EMJ, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Virtual reality distraction for acute pain in children.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Opioid Analgesia Following Pediatric Adenotonsillectomy: A Randomized Clinical Trial.Otolaryngology--head and neck surgery : official journal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery · 2025Trial
- Evolving Therapeutic Paradigms in Pediatric Hypophosphatasia: From Survival-Driven Care to Integrated Precision Management.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Parental experience and professional training shape the perception of comfort and discomfort in preterm and term newborns.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Pain Assessment and Management in Pediatric Trauma Patients Transported to an Emergency Department: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Introduction of a LAT gel and low-dose midazolam sedo-analgesia protocol for pediatric skin suture in the emergency department: simpler is better.Internal and emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Clinical and maternal factors associated with pain and quality of life in children with cerebral palsy.African journal of disability · 2025Article
- Parental Assessment of Postsurgical Pain in Infants at Home Using Artificial Intelligence-Enabled and Observer-Based Tools: Construct Validity and Clinical Utility Evaluation Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2024Article
- Paediatric laceration repair in the emergency department: post-discharge pain and maladaptive behavioural changes.Emergency medicine journal : EMJ · 2024Observational
- Assessment and Treatment of Pain in Hospitalized Children at a Tertiary Children's Hospital: A Cross-Sectional Mixed Methods Survey.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Validation of the Portuguese Version of the Short-Form Glasgow Composite Measure Pain Scale (CMPS-SF) According to COSMIN and GRADE Guidelines.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Pediatric pain knowledge and attitudes among health care professionals-A National Danish Survey.Paediatric & neonatal pain · 2023Article
- What influences physician opioid prescribing for children with acute pain?British journal of pain · 2023Article
- Do kids with forearm fractures need opioids at discharge from the emergency department? Analgesic prescribing and pain control following closed reduction of pediatric forearm fractures.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2023Article
- Article
- Pain Evaluation in the Paediatric Emergency Department: Differences in Ratings by Patients, Parents and Nurses.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Observational
- It's more than just lubrication of the skin: parents' experiences of caring for a child with ichthyosis.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2022Article
- Cross-sectional study of pediatric pain prevalence, assessment, and treatment at a Canadian tertiary hospital.Canadian journal of pain = Revue canadienne de la douleur · 2021Article
- Carers' and paediatric dentists' perceptions of children's pain during restorative treatment.European archives of paediatric dentistry : official journal of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry · 2020Article
- Self-Report for Assessment of Pain and Quality of Life in Children with Sickle Cell Anemia in a Developing Country.Journal of pain research · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionOur objective was to compare pain assessments by patients, parents and physicians in children with different medical conditions, and analyse how this affected the physicians' administration of pain relief. PATIENTS AND
methodsThis cross-sectional study involved 243 children aged 3-15 years treated at Bergen Accident and Emergency Department (ED) in 2011. The child patient's pain intensity was measured using age-adapted scales while parents and physicians did independent numeric rating scale (NRS) assessments.
resultsPhysicians assessed the child's mean pain to be NRS=3.2 (SD 2.0), parents: NRS=4.8 (SD 2.2) and children: NRS=5.5 (SD 2.4). The overall child-parent agreement was moderate (Cohen's weighted κ=0.55), but low between child-physician (κ=0.12) and parent-physician (κ=0.17). Physicians significantly underestimated pain in all paediatric patients ≥3 years old and in all categories of medical conditions. However, the difference in pain assessment between child and physician was significantly lower for fractures (NRS=1.2; 95% CI 0.5 to 2.0) compared to wounds (NRS=3.4; CI 2.2 to 4.5; p=0.001), infections (NRS=3.1; CI 2.2 to 4.0; p=0.002) and soft tissue injuries (NRS=2.4; CI 1.9 to 2.9; p=0.007). The physicians' pain assessment improved with increasing levels of pain, but only 42.1% of children with severe pain (NRS≥7) received pain relief.
conclusionsPaediatric pain was significantly underestimated by ED physicians. In the absence of a self-report from the child, parents' evaluation should be listened to. Despite improved pain assessments in children with fractures and when pain was perceived to be severe, it is worrying that barely half of the children with severe pain received analgesics in the ED.
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