Search

The aim of our paper is to provide succinct and explicit guidance for professionals who are less familiar with heart rate variability (HRV) methodology. Specifically, we provide a brief overview of the methodological considerations when examining caregiver high frequency HRV in the pediatric pain context, with regard to: (1) study design, (2) selecting an HRV parameter, (3) apparatus and subject preparation, and (4) data cleaning and analysis.

Background: Low levels of agreement between caregiver and child reports of acute pain are well documented. Aims: This study builds on prior research through exploring factors that may contribute to low caregiver-child concordance. Specifically, the study examined the influence of adult and child sex on adult judgments of children's pain and fear during venipuncture and examined whether trait parental pain catastrophizing, empathy, and anxiety predicted judgment accuracy. Methods: Using a judgment study paradigm, 160 participants (82 women) viewed 20 10-s video clips of children (10 boys, 10 girls) undergoing venipuncture and rated each child's pain and fear. Adults' ratings were compared to the children's own ratings. Adults completed measures of trait parental pain catastrophizing, dispositional empathy, and trait anxiety. Results: Adults accurately judged boys' pain and fear significantly more often than that of girls. Further, adults underestimated and overestimated girls' pain and overestimated girls' fear significantly more frequently than that of boys. No effects of adult sex or adult by child sex interactions emerged. Parental pain catastrophizing significantly predicted underestimation of girls' pain, with adults who engaged in more catastrophizing being less likely to underestimate girls' pain. The variables did not predict adult judgment of child pain for women and men separately and did not predict adult judgment of child fear when examined by adult sex, child sex, or both combined. Conclusions: Child sex influences adult pain and fear judgments, with girls being more vulnerable to inaccurate assessment than boys. Higher levels of parental pain catastrophizing may buffer against adults' propensities to underestimate girls' pain.

This commentary examines the resilience mechanism of pain self-efficacy and aims to (1) define the construct, (2) briefly review relevant literature, and (3) discuss clinical implications and future research directions.

Background. Pediatric medical information provision literature focuses on hospitalization and surgical procedures, but children would also benefit from an educational program regarding more commonly experienced medical procedures (e.g., needles, general check-up). Objective. To determine whether an evidence-based educational program reduced children’s ratings of fear of and expected pain from medical stimuli and increased their knowledge of procedural coping strategies. Methods. An educational, interactive, developmentally appropriate Teddy Bear Clinic Tour was developed and delivered at a veterinary clinic. During this tour, 71 5–10-year-old children (\(M_{age}\)= 6.62 years, SD = 1.19) were taught about medical equipment, procedures, and coping strategies through modelling and rehearsal. In a single-group, pretest posttest design, participants reported their fear of and expected pain from medical and nonmedical stimuli. Children were also asked to report strategies they would use to cope with procedural fear. Results. Children’s ratings for expected pain during a needle procedure were reduced following the intervention. No significant change occurred in children’s fear of needles. Children reported more intervention-taught coping strategies at Time 2. Conclusions. The results of this study suggest that an evidence-based, interactive educational program can reduce young children’s expectations of needle pain and may help teach them procedural coping strategies.

The objectives of this commentary are to: 1) define the construct of optimism, 2) briefly review the literature supporting the importance of optimism in pain contexts, and 3) outline areas for future research and clinical implications.

The objectives of this commentary are to examine: (a) pain expression and experience in Autism Spectrum Disorder, (b) challenges in pain assessment, (c) and the role of socio-communicative deficits and pain context.

This commentary will introduce massage therapy as a potentially useful intervention for pain in pediatric palliative care and encourage research on its efficacy for this population.

BACKGROUND: Although children experience pain during their daily life, research has generally focused on medical pain. Sport-related pain has not been widely studied in children and research has not examined the occurrence of painful incidents in gymnastics. The prevalence of painful incidents among children in recreational gymnastics classes and accompanying coach responses were recorded.METHODS: Sixty-one children between five and 10 years of age were observed at a gymnastics club. A checklist was used to record painful incidents as well as coach and child responses.RESULTS: The rate of painful incidents was 0.17 per child per hour observed. The floor apparatus was the most common site of incidents, while bumping into equipment was the most common incident. Based on observer ratings, most incidents were mild to moderate in severity and, on average, the child’s reaction to these mild to moderate incidents lasted for 8.5 s. Forty per cent of the children had a mild to moderate painful experience. Coaches reacted to more than 60% of the painful incidents, usually asking how the child was and what had happened. A significant difference was found between the mean severity ratings of painful incidents that were followed by coach response and incidents followed by no response.CONCLUSION: Most children who attend recreational gymnastics classes will likely experience at least one mild to moderate painful experience for every 6 h of class. Coaches are more inclined to react to a painful incident than not. Moreover, a difference was found that suggests coaches responded to more painful incidents.

The objectives of this commentary are: (1) to highlight challenges in the health research pipeline (i.e. recruiting, training, and retaining researchers); (2) to describe an innovative training program addressing the problem in pediatric pain (Pain in Child Health; PICH); and (3) to encourage researchers to build training networks in their own area of expertise. Since some of the challenges faced by clinical researchers are also experienced by scientists in general, both difficulties unique to health researchers as well as more general issues will be discussed.