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Assessment of pediatric pain can be conducted in a number of ways including self-report, questionnaires and diaries, and behavioral observation measures. Most research in pediatric populations is on pain intensity, with few studies assessing other important domains or dimensions of pain (McGrath et al., 2008), such as location, sensory and affective qualities, temporal characteristics, and impact on functioning. The present list emphasizes pain intensity measures in children three years of age and older.

This list is based on measures summarized in several recent reviews (i.e., Cohen et al., 2008; Huguet, Stinson, & McGrath, 2010; Stinson, Kavanagh, Yamada, Gill, & Stevens, 2006; von Baeyer & Spagrud, 2007). All measures are classified as well-established assessment, approaching well-established assessment, and promising assessment as detailed in the Cohen, La Greca, Blount, Kazak, & Holmbeck (2008) paper. When available, information on where to obtain the measure is included in brackets after the name of each measure. Age ranges are included in parentheses. Key references are included after each table and are cited with superscripts in the tables.

Unidimentional Self-Report Scales of Pain Intensity

Assessments	Well-established	Approaching Well-established	Promising
Visual Analog Scale (VAS)1 (ages 7-adult)	X
OUCHER2,3 (ages 3-12)	X
Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale4 (ages 4-18)	X
Faces Pain Scale-Revised (FPS-R)5 (ages 4-16)	X
Pieces of Hurt (Poker Chip Tool)6 (ages 4-7)	X
Numerical Rating Scale7 (ages 8-adult)	X
Colored Analog Scale8 (ages 7-adult)	X

Questionaires and Diaries

Assessments	Well-established	Approaching Well-established	Promising
Headache Diary9 (ages 8-17)		X
Pain Diary10, 11 (ages 12-18; parent proxy 5-11)		X
Abu-Saad Pediatric Pain Assessment Tool12, 13 (5-17) [description of the tool available from Abu-Saad et al., 1990]		X
Adolescent Pediatric Pain Tool (APPT)14 (ages 11-18)		X
Varni-Thompson Pediatric Pain Questionnaire (PPQ)14, 15, 16 (ages 5-18) Available via email from James Varni	X

Behavioral Observation Measures of Pain-Related Distress

Assessments	Well-established	Approaching Well-established	Promising
Procedure Behavioral Rating Scale (PBRS)17 (0-18) [available from central reference]		X
Observational Scale of Behavioral Distress (OSBD18 (ages 2-20); OSBD-R19 (ages 3-13))	X
Child-Adult Medical Procedure Interaction Scale (CAMPIS20 (ages 5-13); CAMPIS-R21 (ages 4-7))	X
Procedure Behavior Checklist (PBCL)22 [available from central reference] (ages 3-18)	X
Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Pain Scale (CHEOPS)23 (ages 1-12)	X
COMFORT Scale24 (ages 0-18)	X
Child Facial Coding System (CFCS)25, 26 (ages 2-5) [Christine Chambers, PhD, Centre for Pediatric Pain Research, IWK Health Centre, 5850/5980 University Avenue, P.O. Box 9700, Halifax, NS, B3K 6R8, Canada		X
FLACC26 (ages 0-18)	X

 

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15. Varni, J.W., Thompson, K.L., & Hanson, V. (1987). The Varni/Thompson Pediatric Pain Questionnaire. I. Chronic musculoskeletal pain in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Pain, 28, 27-38.
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23. McGrath, P.J., Johnson, G., Goodman, J.T., Dunn, J., & Chapman, J. (1985). CHEOPS: A behavioral scale for rating postoperative pain in children. In H. L. Fields, R. Dubner, & F. Cervero (Eds.) Advances in pain research and therapy (Vol. 9, p.p. 395-402). New York: Raven Press.
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26. Merkel, S.I., Voepel-Lewis, T., Shayevitz, J.R., & Malviya, S. (1997). The FLACC: A behavioral scale for scoring postoperative pain in young children. Pediatric Nursing, 23, 293-197.

References

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Cohen, L.L., La Greca, A.M., Blount, R.L., Kazak, A.E., Holmbeck, G.N., & Lemanek, K.L. (2008). Introduction to special issue: Evidence-based assessment in pediatric psychology. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 33, 911-915.

Cohen, L.L., Lemanek, K., Blount, R.L., Dahlquist, L.M., Lim, C.S., Palermo, T.M., McKenna, K.D., Weiss, K.E. (2008). Evidence-based assessment of pediatric pain. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 33, 939-955.

Huguet, A., Stinson, J.N., & McGrath, P.J. (2010). Measurement of self-reported pain intensity in children and adolescents. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 68, 329-336.

Stinson, J.N., Kavanagh, T., Yamada, J., Gill, N., & Stevens, B. (2006). Systematic review of the psychometric properties, interpretability and feasibility of self-report pain intensity measures for use in clinical trials in children and adolescents. Pain, 125, 143-157.

McGrath, P.J., Walco, G., Turk, D.C., Dworkin, R.H., Brown, M.T., Davidson, K, et al. (2008). Core outcome domains and measures for pediatric acute and chronic/recurrent pain clinical trials: PedIMMPACT recommendations. Journal of Pain, 9, 771-783.

von Baeyer, C.L., & Spagrud, L.J. (2007). Systematic review of observational (behavioral) measures of pain for children and adolescents aged 3 to 18 years. Pain, 127, 140-150.