Know Pain, No Pain? Preliminary Testing and Application of a New Tool to Assess Biopsychosocial Pain Concepts in Children

Overview

Journal Children (Basel)

Specialty Health Services

Date 2023 May 27

PMID 37238362

Authors

Linda Wickering

Catherina Lautwein

Hanna Nitsche

Michael Schneider

Tanja Hechler

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

To deliver tailored pain science education, assessing children's biopsychosocial pain concepts is necessary. As validated tools are lacking, a new tool is presented, the biopsychosocial pain concept matrix (BiPS matrix), which assesses children's biological, psychological, and social pain concepts in five domains according to the Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation (Hagger and Orbell, 2003): (1) illness identity, (2) causes, (3) consequences, (4) duration, and (5) treatment. The present preliminary study aims to (1) assess the items' readability and understandability in cognitive interviews with = 9 healthy children (9 to 19 years, = 13.78 years, = 3.05; 44% female) and (2) pre-test the BiPS matrix within an online survey of = 27 healthy children (9 to 19 years, = 13.76 years, = 3.03; 56% female). Results revealed difficulties in understanding some items. Children's understanding increased with age. Age, chronic pain status, and pain in the social environment were positively associated with the BiPS total score, whereas the latter explained the most variance in pain concepts of children. Patient-focused methods such as cognitive interviews proved essential in testing the readability and understanding of items in children. Future studies are warranted to further validate the BiPS matrix.

Citing Articles

Exploring Adolescents' Understanding, Experiences and Beliefs About Pain: A Qualitative Study.

Bogard I, Ayre J, Smith J, Pate J, Sortwell A, Gorringe J Health Expect. 2024; 27(6):e70132.

PMID: 39716729 PMC: 11666834. DOI: 10.1111/hex.70132.

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