Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Feb 17, 2020
Date Accepted: Jul 26, 2020
Interchangeability of a mHealth electronics Visual Analogue Scale (eVAS) App with a traditional paper Visual Analogue Scale (pVAS) amongst Australian children, adolescents and adults: a cross-sectional observational study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The advancement of smart technology in paediatric and adults pain evaluation may offer opportunities to introduce easy-to-use and reliable pain assessment methods within different clinical settings. If promptly introduced within different paediatric and adult pain clinics services, validated and easily accessible mHealth pain App may lead to possible early pain detection, promoting improvement in patient’s quality of life and leading to potentially less time off from school or work.
Objective:
This cross-sectional observational study aims to investigate the interchangeability of an electronic Visual Analogue Scale (eVAS) App with a traditional paper Visual Analogue Scale (pVAS) amongst Australian children, adolescent and adults
Methods:
Healthy participants, age range 10-75 year old, were recruited from a sporting club and a secondary School in Melbourne (Australia). The data collection process involved an application of 8.5 kg/cm2 of pressure from a Wagner Force Dial FDK 20 to the midpoint of the thumb. The pressure was applied twice with a five minutes interval. At each pressure application, participants were asked to randomly records their pain perception using the ‘eVAS’ accessible via InteractiveClinics App’ and the traditional pVAS. Statistical analysis was conducted to determine intra and inter method reliability.
Results:
Overall, 109 healthy participants were recruited. Adults (age: 42.43±14.50 (mean±SD)) had excellent reliability with the ICC as 0.94 (95% CI 0.91, 0.96). Children and Adolescents (age: 13.91±2.89 (mean±SD)) had moderate-good reliability with the ICC calculated as 0.80 (95% CI: 0.70, 0.87) and 0.80 (95% CI: 0.69, 0.87) respectively.
Conclusions:
The eVAS App appear to be interchangeable compared to the traditional pVAS amongst children, adolescents and adults. This pain evaluation method may offer new opportunities to introduce user-friendly and validated pain assessment App for patients, clinicians and allied health professionals Clinical Trial: NA
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