Exploring the concept of pain of Australian children with and without pain: qualitative study
Objective A person’s concept of pain can be defined as how they understand what pain actually is, what function it serves and what biological processes are thought to underpin it. This study aimed to explore the concept of pain in children with and without persistent pain.Design In-depth, face-to-fa...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2019-10-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open |
| Online Access: | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/10/e033199.full |
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| author | Joshua W Pate Tim Noblet Julia M Hush Mark J. Hancock Renee Sandells Meg Pounder Verity Pacey |
| author_facet | Joshua W Pate Tim Noblet Julia M Hush Mark J. Hancock Renee Sandells Meg Pounder Verity Pacey |
| author_sort | Joshua W Pate |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective A person’s concept of pain can be defined as how they understand what pain actually is, what function it serves and what biological processes are thought to underpin it. This study aimed to explore the concept of pain in children with and without persistent pain.Design In-depth, face-to-face interviews with drawing tasks were conducted with 16 children (aged 8–12 years) in New South Wales, Australia. Thematic analysis was used to analyse and synthesise the data.Setting Children with persistent pain were identified from a pain clinic waiting list in Australia, and children without pain were identified through advertising flyers and email bulletins at a university and hospital.Participants Eight children had persistent pain and eight children were pain free.Results Four themes emerged from the data: ‘my pain-related knowledge’, ‘pain in the world around me’, ‘pain in me’ and ‘communicating my concept of pain’. A conceptual framework of the potential interactions between the themes resulting from the analysis is proposed. The concept of pain of Australian children aged 8–12 years varied depending on their knowledge, experiences and literacy levels. For example, when undertaking a drawing task, children with persistent pain tended to draw emotional elements to describe pain, whereas children who were pain free did not.Conclusions Gaining an in-depth understanding of a child’s previous pain-related experiences and knowledge is important to facilitate clear and meaningful pain science education. The use of age-appropriate language, in combination with appropriate assessment and education tasks such as drawing and discussing vignettes, allowed children to communicate their individual concept of pain. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4ded7ff1373b43dfa08624f3c5d788d7 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2044-6055 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2019-10-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
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| series | BMJ Open |
| spelling | doaj-art-4ded7ff1373b43dfa08624f3c5d788d72025-08-20T02:39:31ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552019-10-0191010.1136/bmjopen-2019-033199Exploring the concept of pain of Australian children with and without pain: qualitative studyJoshua W Pate0Tim Noblet1Julia M Hush2Mark J. Hancock3Renee Sandells4Meg Pounder5Verity Pacey6Discipline of Physiotherapy, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia4 Physiotherapy, St Georges Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK1 Department of Health Professions, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia1 Department of Health Professions, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia2 Department of Pain Medicine, Children`s Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia2 Department of Pain Medicine, Children`s Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, New South Wales, AustraliaDepartment of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, AustraliaObjective A person’s concept of pain can be defined as how they understand what pain actually is, what function it serves and what biological processes are thought to underpin it. This study aimed to explore the concept of pain in children with and without persistent pain.Design In-depth, face-to-face interviews with drawing tasks were conducted with 16 children (aged 8–12 years) in New South Wales, Australia. Thematic analysis was used to analyse and synthesise the data.Setting Children with persistent pain were identified from a pain clinic waiting list in Australia, and children without pain were identified through advertising flyers and email bulletins at a university and hospital.Participants Eight children had persistent pain and eight children were pain free.Results Four themes emerged from the data: ‘my pain-related knowledge’, ‘pain in the world around me’, ‘pain in me’ and ‘communicating my concept of pain’. A conceptual framework of the potential interactions between the themes resulting from the analysis is proposed. The concept of pain of Australian children aged 8–12 years varied depending on their knowledge, experiences and literacy levels. For example, when undertaking a drawing task, children with persistent pain tended to draw emotional elements to describe pain, whereas children who were pain free did not.Conclusions Gaining an in-depth understanding of a child’s previous pain-related experiences and knowledge is important to facilitate clear and meaningful pain science education. The use of age-appropriate language, in combination with appropriate assessment and education tasks such as drawing and discussing vignettes, allowed children to communicate their individual concept of pain.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/10/e033199.full |
| spellingShingle | Joshua W Pate Tim Noblet Julia M Hush Mark J. Hancock Renee Sandells Meg Pounder Verity Pacey Exploring the concept of pain of Australian children with and without pain: qualitative study BMJ Open |
| title | Exploring the concept of pain of Australian children with and without pain: qualitative study |
| title_full | Exploring the concept of pain of Australian children with and without pain: qualitative study |
| title_fullStr | Exploring the concept of pain of Australian children with and without pain: qualitative study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring the concept of pain of Australian children with and without pain: qualitative study |
| title_short | Exploring the concept of pain of Australian children with and without pain: qualitative study |
| title_sort | exploring the concept of pain of australian children with and without pain qualitative study |
| url | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/10/e033199.full |
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