Untreated Children's Pain Matters

Authors

  • Samina Ali Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36570/jduhs.2022.2.1660

Abstract

Every day, healthcare practitioners perform simple medical procedures to assess and treat sick or injured children, and can cause them significant pain and distress.1,2 These common procedures include intravenous cannulation, heel lances, lumbar punctures, urethral catheterizations, wound repair, and medical imaging of injured limbs. Unfortunately, fear of needles is common, and is estimated to affect one quarter of adults and almost 2/3 of children.3 Almost 1/5 Canadian caregivers report needle fear as the primary reason for immunization non-compliance.4 While 5–7% have mentioned needle fear as a contributing factor to their COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

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References

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Taddio A, Parikh C, Smart S, Jamal A, Parikh C, Smart S, et al. Survey of the prevalence of immunization non-compliance due to needle fears in children and adults. Vaccine 2012; 30: 4807–12.

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Trottier ED, Dore-Bergern MJ, Chauvin-Kimoff L, Baerg K, Ali S. Managing pain and distress in children undergoing brief diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Paediatr Child Health 2019 ; 24(8):509-35. doi:10.1093/pch/pxz026

Chumpitazi CE, Chang C, Atanelov Z, Dietrich AM, Lam SH, Rose E, et al. ACEP Pediatric Emergency Medicine Committee. Managing acute pain in children presenting to the emergency department without opioids. J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open 2022; 3:e12664.doi:10.1002/emp2.12664

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Published

2022-07-04

How to Cite

Ali, S. . (2022). Untreated Children’s Pain Matters. Journal of the Dow University of Health Sciences (JDUHS), 17(2), 49–51. https://doi.org/10.36570/jduhs.2022.2.1660

Issue

Section

Editorial