Attitudes regarding analgesic use and pain expression in parents of children with cancer.
BACKGROUND
Children with cancer often experience significant levels of pain and their pain is generally undermanaged. Management of care to patients with cancer has shifted from the hospital to the home, and as such parents are charged with managing children's pain. However, parents may have misconceptions of analgesic use, which can lead to undertreatment of pain in children. The purpose of this study is to examine attitudes toward pain medication and perceptions of pain expression among parents of children undergoing cancer treatment.


METHODS
Parents of children who were undergoing cancer treatment at a hospital were recruited to take part in a survey study. A total of 187 parents completed a survey examining their attitudes toward medication and perceptions of pain expression in children.


RESULTS
Many parents reported concerns regarding analgesic use to treat their children's pain and misconceptions about how children can express pain. Regression analyses noted that parental perceptions of pain expression were related to children's experience of chronic or recurring pain and the 2 dimensions of child temperament: emotionality and sociability.


CONCLUSIONS
Many parents of children with cancer have misconceptions regarding issues of pain management; these misconceptions can potentially lead to undertreatment of pain in children. These misconceptions are associated with aspects of children's temperament.
Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care, University of California-Irvine, Orange, CA, USA. mfortier@uci.edu
Michelle A
MA
Fortier
Aditi
A
Wahi
Eva L
EL
Maurer
Edwin T
ET
Tan
Leonard S
LS
Sender
Zeev N
ZN
Kain
D000293:Adolescent; D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms; D059408:Pain Management; D010287:Parent-Child Relations
D000700:Analgesics