Brief report: behavioral correlates of postoperative pain in toddlers and preschoolers.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the association between preoperative parent and child behaviors and postoperative pain in toddlers and preschoolers.


METHODS
Participants were 74 pediatric patients (59 boys, 15 girls), scheduled for inguinal hernia or hydrocele repair, and their parents. Children ranged in age from 12 to 64 months (M = 33.7 months, SD = 14.7 months). Child and parent behaviors were assessed 30 minutes prior to surgery using the Behavioral Observation Scale (BOS), a modified version of the Dyadic Prestressor Interaction Scale (Melamed & Bush, 1985. Postoperative pain was assessed using an observational measure, the Toddler-Preschooler Postoperative Pain Scale (TPPPS) (Tarbell, Cohen, & Marsh, 1992).


RESULTS
Postoperative pain was negatively related to parents' provision of surgery-relevant information during the preoperative observation period.


CONCLUSIONS
Preoperative interventions for young children should include information about the surgery experience.
Christiano
B
B
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pennsylvania 15213, USA. bethc@pcicirs.pci.pitt.edu
Tarbell
S E
SE
D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006552:Hernia, Inguinal / Q000523:psychology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D006848:Testicular Hydrocele / Q000523:psychology / Q000601:surgery