Comparative study of methods of measuring acute pain intensity in an ED

The best one-dimensional method for routine self-assessment of acute pain intensity in a hospital emergency department is unknown. In this study, an 11-point numerical rating scale (NRS), a simple verbal rating scale describing five pain states (VRS), and a visual analogue scale (VAS) were presented...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of emergency medicine 1998-03, Vol.16 (2), p.132-136
Main Authors: Berthier, Frederic, Potel, Gilles, Leconte, Philippe, Touze, Marie-Dominique, Baron, Denis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acute Disease
Acute pain
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy
Biological and medical sciences
Discriminant Analysis
emergency department
Emergency Service, Hospital
Evaluation Studies as Topic
Female
Humans
Intensive care medicine
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Miscellaneous
numeric rating scale
Pain - physiopathology
Pain Measurement - methods
pain scales
Patient Admission
Reproducibility of Results
Self-Assessment
Wounds and Injuries - physiopathology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The best one-dimensional method for routine self-assessment of acute pain intensity in a hospital emergency department is unknown. In this study, an 11-point numerical rating scale (NRS), a simple verbal rating scale describing five pain states (VRS), and a visual analogue scale (VAS) were presented successively on admission to 290 patients with acute pain (200 with and 90 without trauma). VAS and NRS were closely correlated for both traumatic ( r = .795) and nontraumatic pain ( r = .911). The VAS could not be used with 19.5% of patients with trauma and the VRS with 11% of patients without trauma, whereas the NRS could be used with 96% of all patients. The NRS proved more reliable for patients with trauma, giving equivalent results to those with the VAS for patients without trauma. These two scales showed better discriminant power for all patients. Thus, the NRS would appear to be the means for self-evaluation of acute pain intensity in an emergency department.
ISSN:0735-6757
1532-8171
DOI:10.1016/S0735-6757(98)90029-8