The Facial Affective Scale as a Predictor for Pain Unpleasantness When Children Undergo Immunizations

• Needle fear is a common problem in children undergoing immunization. To ensure that the individual child’s needs are met during a painful procedure itwould be beneficial to be able to predictwhether there is a need for extra support.Theself-reporting instrument facial affective scale (FAS) could have potential for this purpose.The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the FAS can predict pain unpleasantness in girls undergoing immunization. Girls, aged 11-12 years, reported their expected pain unpleasantness on the FAS at least two weeks before and then experienced pain unpleasantness immediately before each vaccination. The experienced pain unpleasantness during the vaccination was also reported immediately after each immunization. The level of anxiety was similarly assessed during each vaccination and supplemented with stress measures in relation to the procedure in order to assess and evaluate concurrent validity.The results show that the FAS is valid to predict pain unpleasantness in 11-12-year-old girls who undergo immunizations and that it has the potential to be a feasible instrument to identify children who are in need of extra support to cope with immunization. In conclusion, the FAS measurement can facilitate caring interventions.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

Keyword

nursing

pain assessment

vaccination

Vårdvetenskap

Nursing science

Integrated Caring Science

Hälsa och välfärd

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)