Journal
PAIN RESEARCH & MANAGEMENT
Volume 13, Issue 5, Pages 375-382Publisher
HINDAWI LTD
DOI: 10.1155/2008/326389
Keywords
Adolescents; Electronic diary; Juvenile idiopathic arthritis; Pain; Pilot testing
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Funding
- Department of Anesthesia at The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto, Ontario)
- University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain AstraZeneca
- Canadian Nurses Foundation/Hospital for Sick Children/Canadian Institutes of Health
- Hospital for Sick Children
- Pain in Child Health CIHR
- Premier's Research Excellence Award
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BACKGROUND: Current approaches to evaluating pain in children with chronic arthritis suffer from methodological problems. A real-time data capture approach using electronic diaries has been proposed as a new standard for pain measurement. However, there is limited information available regarding the development and feasibility of this approach in children. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to pilot test the e-Ouch electronic pain diary in terms of compliance and acceptability in adolescents with arthritis to further refine the prototype. METHODS: A descriptive study design with two iterative phases of testing, modifying the prototype and retesting was used. A purposive sample of 13 adolescents with mild to severe pain and disability was drawn from a large rheumatology clinic in a university-affiliated pediatric tertiary care centre in Canada over a four-week period in December 2004. Participants were signalled with an alarm to use the diary three times per day for a two-week period. Adolescents completed an electronic diary acceptability questionnaire. RESULTS: Overall mean compliance rates for phases 1 and 2 were 72.9% and 70.5%, respectively. Compliance was affected by the timing of data collection and technical difficulties. Children rated the diary as highly acceptable and easy to use. Phase 1 testing revealed aspects of the software program that, affected compliance, which were subsequently altered and tested in phase 2. No further technical difficulties arose in phase 2, testing. CONCLUSIONS:. Feasibility testing is a crucial first step in the development of electronic pain measures before use in clinical and research practice.
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