The pain experience of children with cancer: an international multicentre resea...

• Author(s): Fernandes, Ananda Maria ; Batalha, Luis ; Castral, Thaila ; Nascimento, Lucila ; Jacob, Eufemia
• Date: 2011
• Origin: Repositório Científico da Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Coimbra
• Subject(s): Pain; children; adolescent; assesment tool; cancer and quality of life.
• Document Type: Other
• Language: English

Description

Introduction: Few studies have examined pain qualities in children with cancer. More than 75% of these children will survive, creating new challenges to the prevention of chronic pain and to quality of life. Pain is the most prevalent symptom of cancer. Studies are warranted that will increase knowledge about pain experiences of these children, namely the prevalence, the characteristics and the impact on the quality of life. Objectives: To evaluate the intensity, location, and quality of pain in hospitalized children with cancer; to examine relationship between pain and sleep/activity patterns; and to examine relationship between pain and quality of life in these children. Methodolog y: This is a multicenter study in Portugal, Brazil and USA. Participants will be children 8-17 year-old. This descriptive study will have three phases: I - validation of the Portuguese version of the self-report Adolescent Pediatric Pain Tool (P-APPT), in a sample of healthy children and children with cancer; II - identification of psychometric properties of the P-APPT in a sample of children with cancer; III - the multisite study to examine pain experiences, quality of life and activity and sleep patterns in hospitalized children with cancer using the P-APPT. Results: The original version of the APPT has been translated to Portuguese separately in Portugal and Brazil. A consensus version was obtained for the majority of the pain descriptors. Disagreements were accepted as they are related to lexic and semantic differences in the use of Portuguese in the two countries. In each country, a panel of English and Portuguese speaking experts have been asked to validate the Portuguese versions. The next step is the semantic validation of the descriptors by children, using the Q-sort procedure. Conclusions: This multicenter study will be the first to characterize the pain experience of a large number of children with cancer, where pain may be an important feature of cancer, but because of the complexity of cancer related treatments, pain may not be optimally treated.