Background & Aims
Chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP) occurs in approximately 20% of youth who undergo major surgery (Rabbitts et al., 2017). Research studies in pediatric populations in general often have restrictive language exclusionary criteria despite encouragement by funders to include diverse populations (Anwar et al., 2023). Globally, non-fluency in the dominant language of the country where research is done is a common reason for exclusion from research participation. A growing recognition of the impact of language exclusion on research generalizability and equity in patient outcomes (Janevic et al., 2022) as well as the trend of increasing migration prompted the present review. Our aims were to 1) identify known language translations of measures used in pediatric CPSP research, and 2) develop a resource for researchers to expand language inclusivity in research studies in pediatric CPSP.
Methods
Measures were identified from a recently completed update of the Rabbitts et al systematic review (Rabbitts et al., 2017), examining psychosocial risk factors for pediatric CPSP. Seventeen measures evaluating child mood, functional disability, pain catastrophizing, sleep quality, and quality of life in CPSP in youth <18 years of age were identified. We evaluated the existence of language translations of these measure in the World Health Organization’s six official languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Russian and Spanish. Sources included developer and publisher websites, commonly used measure repositories, and google scholar search. We also evaluated validation studies of these existing translated measures.
Results
Seven of the seventeen measures (41%) were available in all six languages. All measures were available in English. Fifteen measures were available in Chinese and Spanish, ten measures in Arabic and French, and only 8 were available in Russian. Data examining measure validity will be presented.
Conclusions
Language translation and validation are important in ensuring that researchers in pediatric CPSP have necessary tools to expand inclusion criteria to be more diverse. Researchers often identify lack of measure translation as a barrier to inclusion of linguistically diverse participants, however the present study identified available translations for many commonly used measures in CPSP research. Although additional translation and validation work is needed, the present study reveals that much progress has been made already. Translation work is especially lacking in Russian, Arabic and French. Future directions include developing a repository to make data available to a global audience in an easily accessible location for pediatric CPSP researchers. Future research should consider expanding inclusion criteria to include individuals fluent in non-dominant languages.
References
Anwar, A., Dawson-Hahn, E., Lion, K. C., Jimenez, M. E., & Yun, K. (2023). Exclusion of Families Who Speak Languages Other than English from Federally Funded Pediatric Trials. The Journal of pediatrics, 262, 113597. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2023.113597
Janevic, M. R., Mathur, V. A., Booker, S. Q., Morais, C., Meints, S. M., Yeager, K. A., & Meghani, S. H. (2022). Making Pain Research More Inclusive: Why and How. The Journal of Pain, 23(5), 707-728. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2021.10.004
Palermo, T. M., Davis, K. D., Bouhassira, D., Hurley, R. W., Katz, J. D., Keefe, F. J., Schatman, M., Turk, D. C., & Yarnitsky, D. (2023). Promoting Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity in Pain Science. Pain Med, 24(2), 105-109. https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnac204
Rabbitts, J. A., Fisher, E., Rosenbloom, B. N., & Palermo, T. M. (2017). Prevalence and Predictors of Chronic Postsurgical Pain in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Pain, 18(6), 605-614. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2017.03.007
Presenting Author
Wendy Gaultney
Poster Authors
Topics
- Pain in Special Populations: Infants/Children