Chronic pain interference assessment tools for children and adults who are unable to self‐report: A systematic review of psychometric properties

Abstract

Aim To identify and evaluate psychometric properties of assessment tools for assessing pain interference in children, adolescents, and adults with chronic pain and the inability to self‐report. Method The protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42022310102). A search was run in MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycInfo (29th March 2022) to identify articles reporting psychometric properties of pain interference assessment tools for children, adolescents, and adults with chronic pain and the inability to objectively self‐report pain. Retrieved studies were reviewed by two authors (MGS, LCF) and study quality was assessed using COSMIN. Results Psychometric properties of 10 pain interference tools were assessed from 33 studies. The Paediatric Pain Profile (PPP) had low‐quality evidence for content validity and internal consistency with children and adolescents who are unable to self‐report. No tools for adults had evidence for content validity and internal consistency. No tool had evidence for all nine psychometric properties. Interpretation The PPP is recommended for pain interference assessment in children and adolescents with chronic pain and the inability to self‐report. Few tools are available for adults. Three tools for children (Patient‐Reported Outcome Measurement Information System Pediatric Proxy Pain Interference Scale; Bath Adolescent Pain Questionnaire for Parents; modified Brief Pain Inventory‐Proxy [mBPI]) and three tools for adults (Doloplus‐2; Patient‐Reported Outcome Measurement Information System Pain Interference Scale‐proxy; Brief Pain Inventory‐proxy) are promising but require further investigation.

Cerebral palsy pain instruments: Recommended tools for clinical research studies by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Cerebral Palsy Common Data Elements project

“…There is a need for validated tools of chronic pain across the ICF framework for use with children and young people who are non-verbal or who have intellectual disabilities. Similar findings have recently been reported by Smith et al, 77 showing a scarce number of tools to assess chronic pain interference in individuals with CP who are unable to self-report owing to communication, motor, or cognitive limitations.…”

Updated recommendations on measures for clinical trials in pediatric chronic pain: a multiphase approach from the Core Outcomes in Pediatric Persistent Pain (Core-OPPP) Workgroup

“…The committee recommends that further work on identifying and recommending measures for younger children with chronic pain and for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities is an important priority for future research. 9,32,54,68 A key goal of a COS is to harmonize outcome domains and measures across clinical trials to better integrate and combine data to evaluate the evidence for interventions. To ensure access to measures to use in clinical trials (or clinical registries), our committee built a website to disseminate the core outcome domains with links to all recommended measures (see https:// sites.google.com/view/core-oppp).…”

“…The committee recommends that further work on identifying and recommending measures for younger children with chronic pain and for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities is an important priority for future research. 9 , 32 , 54 , 68 …”

Examining tools for assessing the impact of chronic pain on emotional functioning in children and young people with cerebral palsy: stakeholder preference and recommendations for modification

“…1, Online Resource 1 & 2). Available pain tools measuring impact of pain on emotional functioning were identified from three recent systematic reviews [6][7][8]. Pain coping tools were defined as those that assessed pain coping, including pain anxiety, pain catastrophising and fear of pain within a dedicated scale or subscale [9,10].…”

“…Harvey et al (2021) established consensus on twelve core domains for chronic pain assessment in CP [5], however few validated tools exist [6]. Furthermore, available tools lack suitability across the varying cognitive, communication and motor abilities in CP [7,8]. Recent reviews highlight a particular need for valid tools assessing impact of pain on emotional functioning, particularly pain coping [6,8].…”