Pain Prevalence Among Children Visiting Pediatric Emergency Departments.

Autor: Míguez-Navarro MC, Escobar-Castellanos M; From the Emergency Department, HGU Gregorio Marañón., Guerrero-Márquez G, Rivas-García A, Pascual-García P; From the Emergency Department, HGU Gregorio Marañón.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Pediatric emergency care [Pediatr Emerg Care] 2022 May 01; Vol. 38 (5), pp. 228-234. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Jan 25.
DOI: 10.1097/PEC.0000000000002580
Abstrakt: Objectives: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence, characteristics, and intensity of children's pain in emergency departments. The secondary purpose was to evaluate the interobserver agreement regarding the level of pain perceived by professionals, parents, and children.
Methods: This was a multicenter, survey-based research study on 0- to 18-year-old patients visiting 1 of the 15 hospitals that form part of the Working Group on Analgesia and Sedation of the Spanish Society of Pediatric Emergency Medicine between October and December 2018. The surveys recorded pain presence, intensity, characteristics, and location.
Results: The study included 1216 surveys. At the time of the interview, 646 patients were experiencing pain, a prevalence of 53.1% (95% confidence interval, 50.3%-55.9%), with 25.38% reporting mild, 36.68% moderate, and 37.46% intense pain. Among the patients, 29.9% had abdominal pain and 14.1% pain in their legs.The pain lasted less than 24 hours in 48.2% of the patients, whereas only 3.0% experienced pain during more than 15 days. The parents of 50.7% of the children had provided an analgesic at home.Interrater agreement regarding pain levels was k = 0.35 between professionals and children, k = 0.38 between children and parents, and k = 0.17 between parents and professionals. For children unable to cooperate, the agreement between professional/child and the parents was k = 0.11.
Conclusions: Pain is a common symptom among emergency department patients, and its evaluation should therefore be obligatory. We found low interrater agreement on pain levels between patients, professionals, and parents, which confirms how difficult it is to accurately evaluate pain intensity.
Competing Interests: Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Databáze: MEDLINE