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Taking into account the observers' uncertainty: a graduated approach to the credibility of the patient's pain evaluation.

Authors :
Rusconi P
Riva P
Cherubini P
Montali L
Source :
Journal of behavioral medicine [J Behav Med] 2010 Feb; Vol. 33 (1), pp. 60-71. Date of Electronic Publication: 2009 Nov 07.
Publication Year :
2010

Abstract

This article presents two experiments aiming to investigate the adoption of a graduated measure to describe credibility attribution by observers who evaluate patients' pain accounts. A total of 160 medical students were required to express a credibility judgment on the pain intensity level of hypothetical patients. We used 16 vignettes based on a factorial mixed-design. Within-participants factors were the reported pain, the presence of a physical sign, the patient's facial expression and the patient's gender, and between-groups factors were the patient's age and the geographical distribution of the patient's name. Results confirm the well-established tendency not to believe patients' self-reports and provide information regarding the evaluators' uncertainty. The findings suggest that a graduated measure is useful for assessing the degree of uncertainty of the observers and subtle effects of different factors upon the judgment of patient's pain.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1573-3521
Volume :
33
Issue :
1
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Journal of behavioral medicine
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
19898929
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-009-9232-5