Background & Aims

Pain in infants is common, yet it is underestimated and under treated because the pain with these young ones is not recognized. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the prevalence of pain in infants between 2 months to 3 years at Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Ghana.

Methods

The FLAAC Scale and Face-pain scale were used to assess infants and because these age groups cannot express themselves verbally, some questions were directed to the parent or guardian, such as the gender, age of the infant, and the mode of feeding. Responses from the paediatricians on the clinical condition, and the medications prescribed were recorded. The behavioural pain expressions for each parameter such as the Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, and Consolability as well as the face-pain scale were observed and recorded appropriately

Results

The study recorded 48% males and 52% females, 54%, 20% and 26% of the infants fell within the age range 2-6 months, 6 months – 1 year and 1-3 years respectively. Acute pain accounted for 90.7% and 9.3% was of chronic pain origin. Using the FLAAC Scale, severe, moderate, mild and no pain were recorded in 12.0% 32.0%, 18.0% and 38.0% of the infants. The common disease conditions in these age groups are anaemia 22%, sepsis of 7%, fever of 6%, malaria and jaundice of 5% as well ass HIV/AIDS and dermatitis accounting for 3%.

Conclusions

Paediatric pain management should be treated as a priority and thus implies that healthcare facilities should incorporate checks and assessment tools to manage and prevent pain in these age groups

References

NONE

Presenting Author

Oluwayemisi Esther Ekor

Poster Authors

Oluwayemisi Esther Ekor

MBChB, FWACS

University of Cape Coast

Lead Author

E-mail

Topics

  • Epidemiology