Brigden Amberly, Garg Megha, Deighan Mairi, Rai Manmita, Leveret Jamie, Crawley Esther
Digital Health, School of Computer Science, Electrical and Electronic Engineering University of Bristol Bristol UK.
Bristol Medical School: Population Health Sciences University of Bristol Bristol UK.
Paediatr Neonatal Pain. 2023 Apr 19;6(3):89-97. doi: 10.1002/pne2.12106. eCollection 2024 Sep.
Pediatric chronic pain places a significant burden on children, their families, and healthcare services. Effective pain measurement is needed for both clinical management and research. Digital pain measurement tools have been developed for adult and adolescent populations however less is known about measurement in younger children. In this systematic review, we aimed to identify, describe, and evaluate (in terms of acceptability) digital tools for the assessment of chronic pain in children (5-11 years). We searched five databases (Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and CINAHL), between January 2014 and January 2022. We included empirical studies which included digital tool/s to assess pain in children aged between 5-11 years with chronic pain conditions. We independently double-screened the papers to determine eligibility. We followed PRISMA guidelines for reporting. A total of five papers, covering four digital tools, were included. The digital tools used ranged from a static online survey to a highly interactive, personalized tablet application. Two studies were cross-sectional and two collected longitudinal pain data via electronic devices outside the clinical setting. Digital features of the tools included: dynamic testing ( = 2), notifications/prompts ( = 1), data transmission ( = 1), remote monitoring ( = 1), accessibility ( = 1), data visualization/feedback ( = 1), personalization/customization ( = 1), gamification ( = 1) and data labeling ( = 1). Qualitative usability data was only available for one of the tools, which indicated its acceptability and highlighted preferred features/functions by child users (creative and personalizable features, gamification features), and parental users (symptom tracking). This review has highlighted the limited number of digital assessment tools available for children with chronic pain aged 5-11. This review identified some examples of technology enabling the capture of longitudinal, repeated measurement of multiple dimensions of pain (intensity, location, quality). We suggest directions for future research.
小儿慢性疼痛给儿童及其家庭以及医疗服务带来了沉重负担。临床管理和研究都需要有效的疼痛测量方法。针对成人和青少年群体已经开发了数字疼痛测量工具，但对于年幼儿童的测量了解较少。在这项系统评价中，我们旨在识别、描述和评估（就可接受性而言）用于评估5至11岁儿童慢性疼痛的数字工具。我们在2014年1月至2022年1月期间检索了五个数据库（Cochrane图书馆、EMBASE、MEDLINE、PsycINFO和CINAHL）。我们纳入了实证研究，这些研究包括使用数字工具评估5至11岁患有慢性疼痛疾病儿童的疼痛情况。我们独立进行双盲筛选以确定入选资格。我们遵循PRISMA报告指南。总共纳入了五篇论文，涵盖四种数字工具。所使用的数字工具从静态在线调查到高度互动的个性化平板电脑应用程序不等。两项研究为横断面研究，两项通过临床环境外的电子设备收集纵向疼痛数据。这些工具的数字特征包括：动态测试（=2）、通知/提示（=1）、数据传输（=1）、远程监测（=1）、可及性（=1）、数据可视化/反馈（=1）、个性化/定制（=1）、游戏化（=1）和数据标记（=1）。定性可用性数据仅适用于其中一种工具，该数据表明了其可接受性，并突出了儿童用户（创造性和可个性化特征、游戏化特征）和家长用户（症状跟踪）偏好的特征/功能。本评价突出了可用于5至11岁慢性疼痛儿童的数字评估工具数量有限。本评价确定了一些能够捕捉疼痛多维度（强度、位置、性质）纵向重复测量的技术示例。我们提出了未来研究的方向。
