Painapple®. Validation and evaluation of an electronic application for the management of acute pain in pediatric patients

Abstract

Introduction: The digital version of the assessment scales recommended for the pediatric patient could contribute to its improvement and to implement the quality indicators described for the management of acute pain.

Material and methods: Psychometric validation (validity and reliability) of pain assessment and treatment side effects scales incorporated in the electronic application PainAPPle. For this, both formats (paper and electronic) of all the scales were applied in two measurements with 30minutes of difference in 44 patients from 4 to 18years of the Acute Pain Unit in the immediate postoperative period. In addition, the data collected by PainAPPle was evaluated by retrospectively applying the quality indicators described for the management of acute postoperative pain.

Results: Reliability was studied analyzing the high correlation (Spearman greater than 0.5, P<.001) that we obtained for the values of each scale in two moments with 30minutes of difference, in the same patients. For validity, the high correlation (Spearman greater than 0.5, P<.001) between the values of the paper scales (gold rule) and PainAPPle at both minute 0 and 30 was analyzed. Concordance obtained taking into account the cut-off point of the scales that would force a treatment were also statistically significant (P<.005).

Conclusions: PainAPPle is a validated instrument for the management of acute pain in pediatric patients. The collected data allow to apply the quality indicators described for the management of acute postoperative pain.

Keywords: Acute pain; Aplicaciones móviles; Dolor agudo; Gestión; Indicadores de calidad; Management; Mobile applications; Pediatrics; Pediatría; Quality Indicators; Software Validation; Validación de software.