Reliability of the color analog scale: repeatability of scores in traumatic and nontraumatic injuries.
OBJECTIVE
The objective was to assess in a pediatric emergency department (ED) the reliability of the color analog scale (CAS) for acute pain assessment, overall and between traumatic and nontraumatic pain etiology.


METHODS
This was a prospective study of children aged 5 to 16 years in the ED of a children's hospital who had a complaint of pain. The CAS was administered to the patient at admission and at 30 minutes. To evaluate repeatability, a second measurement was obtained 1 minute following each assessment. This assumed there would be no substantial change in pain intensity within 1 minute. The authors used the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to evaluate the repeatability of 1-minute interval measurements.


RESULTS
A total of 170 patients were enrolled. The origin of pain was traumatic in 81 cases (48%). Regardless of pain etiology, the CAS scores were highly repeatable (r = 0.97, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.95 to 0.98).


CONCLUSIONS
The color analog scale is both a valid and a reliable self-reporting tool in the assessment of acute pain in children.
Bulloch
Blake
B
Department of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, AZ, USA. bbulloch@phoenixchildrens.com
Garcia-Filion
Pam
P
Notricia
David
D
Bryson
Matt
M
McConahay
Tom
T
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014481:United States; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*