This study was designed to compare pain intensity during a clinical event (fingerstick) in children with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) who have experienced recurrent episodic pain, against those children without SCD who have not experienced recurrent pain. A convenience sample of sixty-six 7--12 year old children was obtained, 33 with SCD from the sickle cell clinic and a matched (age, sex, ethnic origin) group of 33 children without SCD from the community. Pain intensity using the Coloured Analogue Scale (McGrath et al., 1996) and, medical fears using the Child Medical Fears Scale (Broome & Hellier, 1987) were measured following the fingerstick. The number of hospitalisations and the number of experiences with needles were examined for their relationship to pain intensity or medical fears. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed no significant differences in either pain intensity or medical fears between the two groups. There was a moderate, significant correlation between pain intensity and medical fears for the entire sample (r = .269, p < .03). Among children with SCD, those who had more than the median number of hospitalisations (6), reported lower medical fear scores (p < .01). This finding suggests adaptation on the part of these children to their chronic illness and to hospitalisations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.29909 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Meredith, Patricia. |
| Contributors | Johnston, Celeste (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (School of Nursing.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001681447, proquestno: MQ55078, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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