SMS Pain Diary: a Method for Real-time Data Capture of Recurrent Pain in Childhood

Objectives: To capture recurrent pain in children aged 9-15 years reported by short message service (SMS) and to test the compliance of such reporting in a pilot study.

Methods: After instructions, 15 children reported their pain six times a day on SMS for a week and the compatibility of the reporting was evaluated. The pain was expressed and reported on three variables: intensity captured using a numeric rating scale (NRS-11), duration in minutes and a verbal pain-related disability scale with six alternatives (0-5). The validity of this scale was tested in 37 children, and the reliability in a test-retest procedure in 20 children.

Results: Good compliance reporting the three variables intensity and duration of pain as well as pain-related disability on SMS was indicated. Support for construct validity and reliability of the verbal instrument for pain-related disability was achieved.

Conclusion: The study supports the hypothesis that pain experience expressed as intensity, duration and pain-related disability can be captured in real time by SMS in an inexpensive and compliant way in children aged 9-15 years. Validity and reliability was indicated for the constructed verbal pain-related disability scale. Further studies are needed to further confirm these findings.