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Comparative Study
. 2003 Oct;105(3):437-443.
doi: 10.1016/S0304-3959(03)00256-2.

The parents' postoperative pain measure: replication and extension to 2-6-year-old children

Christine T Chambers  1 , Allen G Finley, Patrick J McGrath, Trudi M Walsh
Affiliations
Comparative Study

The parents' postoperative pain measure: replication and extension to 2-6-year-old children

Christine T Chambers et al. Pain. 2003 Oct.

Abstract

Pain assessment is a difficult task for parents at home following children's surgery. The purpose of the present study was to confirm the psychometric properties of a behavioural measure of postoperative pain developed to assist parents with pain assessment in children aged 7-12 years following day surgery. The study also examined the reliability and validity of the measure with children aged 2-6 years. Participants were 51 parents of children aged 7-12 years and 107 parents of children aged 2-6 years. For the 2 days following surgery, parents completed a pain diary that included global ratings of their children's pain and the 15-item Parents' Postoperative Pain Measure (PPPM). The older children provided self-reports of their pain intensity. The PPPM items showed good internal consistency on the two postoperative days for both samples (alpha's=0.81-0.88) and scores on the PPPM were highly correlated with children's (for the older children) and parents' (for the young children) global ratings of pain (r's=0.53-0.72). As global pain ratings decreased from Days 1 to 2, so did scores on the PPPM. Scores on the PPPM were successful in discriminating between children who had undergone low/moderate and high pain surgeries. The results of this study provide evidence of the reliability and validity of the PPPM as a measure of postoperative pain among children aged 2 through to 12 years.

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References

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    1. Chambers CT, Reid GJ, McGrath PJ, Finley GA. Development and preliminary validation of a postoperative pain measure for parents. Pain. 1996;68:307-313.
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