Based on available evidence , the NRS-11 , FPS-R , and CAS were strongly recommended for self-report of acute pain .
Only weak recommendations could be made for self-report measures for postoperative and chronic pain .
No measures were recommended for children younger than 6 years , identifying a need for further measurement refinement in this age range .
Abstract In 2006 , PAIN published a systematic review of the measurement properties of self-report pain intensity measures  in children and adolescents ( Stinson JN , Kavanagh T , Yamada J , Gill N , Stevens B. Systematic review of the psychometric properties , interpretability and feasibility of self-report pain intensity measures for use in clinical trials in children and adolescents .
Key developments in pediatric pain necessitate an up date of this work , most notably growing use of the 11-point numeric rating scale ( NRS-11 ) .
Our aim was to review the measurement properties of single-item self-report pain intensity measures in children 3 to 18 years old .
A secondary aim was to develop evidence -based recommendations for measurement of child and adolescent self-report of acute , postoperative , and chronic pain .
Determining the minimum clinically significant difference in visual analog pain score for children.
STUDY OBJECTIVE We sought to determine the minimum clinical ly significant difference in visual analog scale ( VAS ) pain score for children . METHODS We performed a prospect i ve , single-group , repeated- measures study of children between 8 and 15 years presenting to an urban pediatric emergency department with acute pain . On presentation to the ED , patients marked the level of their pain on a 100-mm nonhatched VAS scale . At 20-minute intervals thereafter , they were asked to give a verbal categoric rating of their pain as " heaps better , " " a bit better , " " much the same , " " a bit worse , " or " heaps worse " and to mark the level of pain  on a VAS scale of the same type as used previously . A maximum of 3 comparisons was recorded for each child . The minimum clinical ly significant difference in VAS pain score was defined as the mean difference between current and preceding scores when the subject reported " a bit worse " or " a bit better " pain . RESULTS Seventy-three children were enrolled in the study , yielding 103 evaluable comparisons in which pain was rated as " a bit better " or " a bit worse . " The minimum clinical ly significant difference in VAS score was 10 mm ( 95 % confidence interval 7 to 12 mm ) . CONCLUSION This study found the minimum clinical ly significant difference in VAS pain score for children aged 8 to 15 years ( on a 100-mm VAS scale ) to be 10 mm ( 95 % confidence interval 7 to 12 mm ) . In studies of population s , differences of less than this amount , even if statistically significant , are unlikely to be of clinical significance
Based on available evidence , the NRS-11 , FPS-R , and CAS were strongly recommended for self-report of acute pain .
Only weak recommendations could be made for self-report measures for postoperative and chronic pain .
No measures were recommended for children younger than 6 years , identifying a need for further measurement refinement in this age range .
Abstract In 2006 , PAIN published a systematic review of the measurement properties of self-report pain intensity measures  in children and adolescents ( Stinson JN , Kavanagh T , Yamada J , Gill N , Stevens B. Systematic review of the psychometric properties , interpretability and feasibility of self-report pain intensity measures for use in clinical trials in children and adolescents .
Key developments in pediatric pain necessitate an up date of this work , most notably growing use of the 11-point numeric rating scale ( NRS-11 ) .
Our aim was to review the measurement properties of single-item self-report pain intensity measures in children 3 to 18 years old .
A secondary aim was to develop evidence -based recommendations for measurement of child and adolescent self-report of acute , postoperative , and chronic pain .