Bogard Isabelle, Ayre Julie, Smith Jenna, Pate Joshua W, Sortwell Andrew, Gorringe Jonah, Gordon Georgia, Kamper Steven J, Yamato Tie P
Faculty of Medicine and Health, School of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.
Health Expect. 2024 Dec;27(6):e70132. doi: 10.1111/hex.70132.
Pain is prevalent across the lifespan and contributes to significant societal and economic burdens. The public often holds misconceptions about pain and pain management. Despite this, there are no well-resourced public health initiatives delivering information about pain and pain management to the public. Adolescence is an opportune time to educate the public about pain. Health interventions designed for adolescents should reflect their understanding, beliefs and experiences; however, no studies explore this in non-clinical populations of adolescents. We aimed to explore adolescents' understanding, experiences and beliefs about pain to inform the development of a school-based pain education module.
We conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 adolescents in grades 7-10 (ages 11-16) attending Australian secondary schools. Interviews were conducted on video-conferencing software, audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using Framework Analysis.
We generated three themes: (i) physical and psychological pain are distinct, (ii) psychological and contextual factors influence how someone feels or reacts to physical pain and (iii) physical pain matters if it impacts participation in meaningful activities.
Adolescents' understanding and beliefs about pain do not always align with current scientific understanding of pain. School-based pain education programmes should target these areas of misalignment. Addressing adolescents' misconceptions about pain through pain education could also create a more supportive school environment for adolescents experiencing pain. Interactive approaches to learning, such as discussions that encourage adolescents to reflect on their experiences of pain, could be a promising avenue for pain education.
Two co-authors are part of the study population and contributed to the study design and analysis. Their input ensured the interview guide was appropriate for the target population and provided an adolescent perspective on the findings. They were remunerated for their time in accordance with consumer involvement guidelines.
疼痛在人的一生中普遍存在，并造成了巨大的社会和经济负担。公众对疼痛及疼痛管理常常存在误解。尽管如此，目前尚无资源充足的公共卫生举措向公众提供有关疼痛及疼痛管理的信息。青少年时期是向公众开展疼痛教育的合适时机。为青少年设计的健康干预措施应反映他们的理解、信念和经历；然而，尚无研究在非临床青少年人群中对此进行探索。我们旨在探究青少年对疼痛的理解、经历和信念，以为基于学校的疼痛教育模块的开发提供信息。
我们对25名就读于澳大利亚中学7至10年级（年龄11至16岁）的青少年进行了半结构化访谈。访谈通过视频会议软件进行，录音后逐字转录，并采用框架分析法进行分析。
我们归纳出三个主题：（i）身体疼痛和心理疼痛是有区别的，（ii）心理和情境因素会影响一个人对身体疼痛的感受或反应，（iii）如果身体疼痛影响到有意义活动的参与，那它就很重要。
青少年对疼痛的理解和信念并不总是与当前对疼痛的科学理解一致。基于学校的疼痛教育项目应针对这些认知偏差领域。通过疼痛教育纠正青少年对疼痛的误解，也可为经历疼痛的青少年营造一个更具支持性的学校环境。互动式学习方法，比如鼓励青少年反思自身疼痛经历的讨论，可能是疼痛教育的一个有前景的途径。
两位共同作者是研究对象的一部分，并参与了研究设计和分析。他们的参与确保了访谈指南适合目标人群，并从青少年的角度对研究结果提供了看法。他们根据消费者参与指南获得了相应的时间报酬。
