Validation of three paediatric pain scores for use by parents

Twenty children undergoing general surgery and 20 children undergoing otorhinolaryngological surgery were simultaneously assessed on two occasions by a doctor and a parent using three pain scoring systems. The pain scoring systems used were the Objective Pain Score, a four point numerical score and a 100 mm visual analogue scale. There was a high correlation between the scores given by the doctor and by the parents for all three scoring systems with parents consistently giving slightly higher scores than the doctor. The correlation coefficients for parental and medical pain scores in recovery were 0.77 for the Objective Pain Score, 0.70 for the four point numerical score and 0.69 for the visual analogue scale (p<0.01). At 1 h after leaving the recovery area the correlation coefficients were 0.81, 0.80 and 0.73 respectively (p<0.01). these results suggest that parental scoring of pain in children will be useful in future audit and research of analgesic regimens, particularly in day-case surgery.