Division of Child and Adolescent Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Switzerland.
Swiss Med Wkly. 2022 Jun 6;152:w30194. doi: 10.4414/smw.2022.w30194.
Chronic pain is a frequent complaint in children and adolescents, with great international variation in prevalence. Paediatricians are usually the first-line contact for pain problems in children and might refer patients to other specialists or pain clinics where available. Prevalence estimates of paediatric chronic pain and paediatricians' care experiences in Switzerland are currently lacking.
The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of paediatric chronic pain in Swiss paediatrician practices and paediatricians' professional experience and confidence with, and care provision for patients with paediatric chronic pain.
Data were collected in 2019 using a cross-sectional online questionnaire among Swiss paediatricians. Ordinary least square regression analyses and Monte Carlo simulations were applied to estimate the prevalence rate of paediatric chronic pain. Explorative multivariate logistic regression analyses investigated whether sociodemographic and professional factors were associated with paediatricians' confidence in treating and experience with paediatric chronic pain.
We included 337 paediatricians in our anonymised analyses. The prevalence rate of paediatric chronic pain in our sample was estimated to be between 2.54% and 3.89%. Twenty percent of paediatricians reported feeling confident in treating paediatric chronic pain, 77.2% had referred patients with paediatric chronic pain to another specialist and more than half had at least some experience with paediatric chronic pain. Experience and confidence with treating paediatric chronic pain were associated with male gender.
Our study is the first to estimate the prevalence of paediatric chronic pain by means of a sample of Swiss paediatricians. The prevalence rate was considerably lower than other estimates. Given the lack of training and confidence with treating paediatric chronic pain reported by paediatricians, absence of awareness and resulting under-diagnosis is possible.
慢性疼痛是儿童和青少年常见的主诉，其患病率在国际上存在较大差异。儿科医生通常是儿童疼痛问题的一线联系人，他们可能会将患者转介给其他专家或疼痛诊所（如果有的话）。目前，瑞士儿科医生对儿科慢性疼痛的患病率以及他们在处理儿科慢性疼痛方面的经验和信心缺乏了解。
本研究旨在评估瑞士儿科医生实践中儿科慢性疼痛的患病率，以及儿科医生对儿科慢性疼痛患者的治疗经验、信心和护理情况。
2019 年，我们采用横断面在线问卷调查的方式，对瑞士儿科医生进行了数据收集。应用普通最小二乘法回归分析和蒙特卡罗模拟来估计儿科慢性疼痛的患病率。采用探索性多变量逻辑回归分析，调查了社会人口学和职业因素是否与儿科医生治疗儿科慢性疼痛的信心和处理儿科慢性疼痛的经验相关。
我们对 337 名儿科医生进行了匿名分析。我们样本中儿科慢性疼痛的患病率估计在 2.54%至 3.89%之间。20%的儿科医生表示对治疗儿科慢性疼痛有信心，77.2%的儿科医生将患有儿科慢性疼痛的患者转介给了其他专家，超过一半的儿科医生至少有一些治疗儿科慢性疼痛的经验。治疗儿科慢性疼痛的经验和信心与男性性别有关。
我们的研究首次通过瑞士儿科医生的样本来估计儿科慢性疼痛的患病率。患病率明显低于其他估计值。鉴于儿科医生在治疗儿科慢性疼痛方面缺乏培训和信心，可能存在意识不足和由此导致的漏诊。
