Author ORCID Identifier
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-13-2024
Abstract
Background: Youth with sickle cell disease (SCD) face several challenges as they age, including increased pain frequency, duration, and interference. The purpose of this study was to (i) determine the feasibility of routine pain screening; (ii) identify and describe various clinical pain presentations; and (iii) understand preferences/resources related to engaging in integrative health and medicine (IHM) modalities within an outpatient pediatric SCD clinic. Methods: During routine outpatient visits, patients aged 8–18 completed measures of pain frequency, duration, and chronic pain risk (Pediatric Pain Screening Tool [PPST]). Participants screening positive for (i) persistent or chronic pain or (ii) medium or high risk for persistent symptoms and disability on the PPST were asked to complete measures of pain interference, pain catastrophizing, and interest in/resources for engaging in IHM modalities. Results: Between March 2022 and May 2023, 104/141 (73.8%) patients who attended at least one outpatient visit were screened. Of these 104 (mean age 12.46, 53.8% female, 63.5% HbSS), 34 (32.7%) reported persistent or chronic pain, and 48 (46.2%) reported medium or high risk for persistent symptoms and disability. Patients completing subsequent pain screening measures reported a mean pain interference T-score of 53.2 ± 8.8 and a mean pain catastrophizing total score of 24.3 ± 10.2. Patients expressed highest interest in music (55.6%) and art therapy (51.9%) and preferred in-person (81.5%) over virtual programming (22.2%). Conclusions: Comprehensive pain screening is feasible within pediatric SCD care. Classifying patients by PPST risk may provide a means of triaging patients to appropriate services to address pain-related psychosocial factors.
Keywords
integrative medicine, pain catastrophizing, pain screening, sickle cell disease
Publication Title
Pediatric Blood & Cancer
Rights
© 2024 The Authors. Pediatric Blood & Cancer published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Department/Center
Pediatrics
Recommended Citation
Vroom DC, Rodgers-Melnick SN, Brown T, Owusu-Ansah A, Dusek JA. Pain screening in youth with sickle cell disease: A quality improvement study. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2024; 71:e30912. https://doi.org/10.1002/pbc.30912