• The Journal of Dong Guk Oriental Medicine
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.25-46
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• 2000

Pain can be evaluated by experimental methods and clinical methods, but due to subjective characteristics of pain, clinical methods are generally used. The clinical pain measurement tools are divided into unidimensional and multidimensional assessment tools. The former include Visual Analogue Scale, Verbal Rating Scale, Numerical Rating Scale, Pain Faces Scale, and Poker Chip Tool and the latter include McGill Pain Questionnaire, MMPI, Pain Behavior Scale, Pain disability index, and Pain Rating Scale. Unidimensional pain scales mainly measure the intensity of pain on the basis of the patient's self report and their simple construction and ease of use enable the invesgator to assess acute pain. Multidimensional pain scales are used to evaluate subjective, psychological and behavioral aspects of pain and because of its comprehensive and confidential properties they are applied to chronic pain. Patient's linguistic and cognitive abilities are major factors to restrain accurate assessment of pain. Although behavioral patterns and vital sign are inferior to self-report in the measurement of pain, they can be useful indexes in those situations. When deciding on a pain-assessment tool, the investigator must determine which aspect of pain he or she wishes to evaluate on the characteristics of the group of patients, their backgrounds, and their communication skills. Making the proper choice will facilitate the acquisition of meaningful data and the formulation of valid conclusions.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.205-212
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• 2008

Needle phobia of medical devices is a significant problem in children patients. We conducted study in 130 pediatric patients aged $8{\sim}13$(mean age 10.5) who had venipuncture performed in a computed tomography. This review aims to explore the research available relating to three commonly used pain rating scales of children, the visual analogue scale(VAS), numeric pain rating scale(NPRS) and Wong-Baker faces pain scale(WBFPS) with scores. Its validity is supported by a strong positive correlation with the three-pain rating scales(correlations ranging from 0.70 to 0.92) measure in children. There were no significant differences between the means on the VAS and either of the pain rating scales. It has the advantage of being suitable for use with the most widely used metric for scoring($0{\sim}10$), and conforms closely to a linear interval scale. These scales presented moderate to good correlation and moderate agreement, sufficient for valid use in children. All three pain-rating scales are valid, reliable and appropriate for use in intravenous catheter placement.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.215-224
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• 2009

Objectives : Low back pain is the most prevalent condition for receiving Korean traditional medical treatment. The aim of this review is to provide fundamental data for development of low back pain classification and assessment criteria which can be used in clinical trials and clinical practice. Methods : Domestic and international clinical studies on oriental medicine treatment for low back pain were searched through on-line databases. The searched articles were reviewed and the evaluation tools used in the studies were investigated. Results : A total of 38 possibly relevant articles in Pubmed were identified, of which 34 articles included assessment criteria for low back pain. And 38 articles were reviewed in the Journal of Korean Oriental Medicine and the Journal of Korean Acupuncture & Moxibustion Society. 29 articles used pain scales, 24 used functional scales, and 20 among 34 articles in PubMed used both pain and functional scales. The majority of articles which published in Korea used worthless assessment scales of simple grades. There was no articles which used assessment scales related to the concepts of Korean traditional medicine. Conclusions : Our review of articles suggests that we would use both pain and functional scales. Future assessment scales should include the concepts of Korean traditional medicine.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.29-43
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• 2007

Purpose: This study was done to develop a pain management protocol for nursing home patients with dementia and to examine effects of the protocol on pain assessments and interventions by the nurses and on pain relief signs in the patients. Method: The six steps in the protocol development and the examination of effect are outlined. Three rounds using the Delphi technique and one group pretest-posttest design experiment were developed. Design issues, such as sample selection and sample size, are addressed in relation to the study protocol. Results: After implementation of the pain management protocol, there were significant changes nursing actions including frequency of number of physical examinations, utilization of pain assessment tools, and request to doctors for discomfort management and there were significant changes in frequency in the number of verbal and physical expressions of pain, and emotional patterns. Conclusion: This is the first pain management protocol for patients with dementia in Korea. However, more study will be needed to determine the methodological strength and necessary revisions for the protocol.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.3997-4001
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• 2016

Background: Cancer is a worldwide health problem and pain is among the most common and unpleasant effects affecting well-being of cancer patients. Accurate description of pain can help physicians to improve its management. Many English tools have been developed to assess pain. Onkly a limited number of these are applied in Arab countries. Our aim was to assess the quality, the nature and the severity of pain using the short McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) on cancer patients in the National Institute of Oncology (NIO) in Rabat, Morocco. Materials and Methods: The tool used is the SF-MPQ inspired from the Arabic version of the MPQ. The subjects were cancer patients (N=182) attending the NIO, from 24th October 2015 to 8th January 2016, aging ${\geq}18$ years old, experiencing pain and coming to have or to update their pain medication. Results: The rate of participation was 96.3%. Eight patients had difficulties to express their pain using descriptors, but could use the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the body diagram. The most frequent sensory descriptors were 'Throbbing', 'Shooting', 'Hot-Burning'. The most used affective descriptor was 'Tiring-Exhausting'. The mean VAS was 6.6 (2.4). The mean score of all items was 11.9 (7.8). The patients were suffering from severe pain. The internal consistency of the form was s acceptable. Conclusions: The findings indicate that most of the patients attending the pain center of the NIO could use the descriptors of the SF-MPQ to describe their pain. They indicate the usefulness of the SF-MPQ to assess the nature and the severity of pain in cancer patients. This tool should be tested in other Moroccan and Arabic contexts associated with other tools in clinical trials.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.415-424
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• 2014

PURPOSE: This study examined the effect of high-frequency transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) and San-Yin-Jiao (SP6) acupressure on primary dysmenorrhea. Furthermore, the difference in effectiveness between the two methods were compared. METHODS: Twenty-six students participated in this study, and were randomly assigned to a high-frequency TENS group(experimental 1, n=9), a San-Yin-Jiao (SP6) acupressure group(experimental 2, n=9), and no treatment group(control, n=8). They were assessed and treated on the first day of their menstruation. The TENS protocol included applying 20 minutes of stimulation with a frequency of 100Hz, $100{\mu}sec$ pulse width. Four electrodes were placed on the skin 3 cm from midline at T12-L1 and S2-3 paravertebral muscles. San-Yin-Jiao (SP6) acupressure should be applied with the thumb for 10 minutes(8 seconds pressure and 2 seconds rest) on the SP6 acupoint. This procedure should be repeated for the other foot. Dysmenorrheal pain measured two pain assessment tools (VAS, DPT) pre-treatment; immediate post-treatment; 30minutes, 1, 2hours; and 3, 4, 5, 6, 24 hours after the VAS test were added. RESULTS: The results showed significant differences in pain assessments (VAS, DPT) after treatment for subjects of experimental group1 (p<.05) and experimental group2 (p<.05), whereas the between-group comparison found no statistically significant differences. CONCLUSION: This result supports the idea that using two methods could be effective in pain reduction among students who suffered from primary dysmenorrhea.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.25-32
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate the most effective and comprehensible method for the assessment of resting scapular position (RSP) and pain level (PL) in unilateral shoulder pain (USP). Fifty volunteers with USP were involved in the study. Resting scapular assessments of the patients' pain sides (PS) and non-pain sides (NPS) were evaluated. The assessment tools for RSP are: 1) sternal notch (SN) to coracoid process (CP) distance 2) 3rd thoracic spinous process (T3S) to posterolateral angle of acromion (PLA) distance 3) scapular index 4) 8th thoracic spinous process (T8S) to inferior angle of scapular (IAS) distance 5) supine measurement of pectoralis minor (PM) distance 6) standing PM distance 7) PM index (PMI) and 8) PM pain. The paired t-test was used to compare PS and NPS in RSP. Pearson correlation analysis was used to confer a relationship between the PL and RSP. The results of this study indicated that: 1) all the variables between the PS and NPS for RSP were statistically significant(p<.05) and 2) the PMI showed the strongest relationship in the correlation analysis between RSP and PL(p<.05, r=.37). Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a relationship between PMI and PL and it is suggested that an assessment tool using PMI to diagnose shoulder pain would be clinically effective.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.94-102
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to review existing assessment tools for patients with low back pain and improve them through combination. A total of 314 patients with low back pain participated. Their condition was assessed using the Oswestry Disability Questionnaire (ODQ), the Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale (QBPD), and the Back Pain Functional Scale (BPFS). Rasch analysis was applied to identify inappropriate items, item difficulties, and the separation index. In this study, the 'sex life' item of the ODQ (10 items) and the 'sleeping' item of the BPFS (12 items) showed misfit statistics, whereas all items of the QBPD (20 items) were appropriate. After combining the ODQ, QBPD and BPFS, Rasch analysis was applied. The 'pain intensity', and the 'sex life' item of the ODQ and the 'throw a ball' item of QBPD showed misfit statistics. These 3 items were retained for further analysis. The remaining 42 combined ODQ-QBPD-BPFS items were arranged according to difficulty. For all subjects, the most difficult item was 'pain intensity', whereas the easiest was 'take food out of the refrigerator'. As the separation index of 42 combined ODQ-QBPD-BPFS was higher than that of the three questionnaires separately, difficulty of items varied with some need for rearrangement. The results of this study confirmed the possibility and need for a new back pain disability assessment tool, and produced one. Further study is needed to refine the questionnaire in consideration of psychosocial and occupational factors.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.89-102
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• 2015

Patients unable to speak are at higher risk for untreated pain. Use of valid behavioral and physiologic measures for pain is highly recommended for uncommunicative patients. This study was performed to compare the reliability and validity of NVPS-K and CPOT-K for pain assessment of nonverbal patients. This study was conducted from July to November 2011. A total of 29 nonverbal adult patients admitted to a university hospital intensive care unit participated in this study. Interrater reliability of the NVPS-K and CPOT-K had intermediate to high intraclass correlation coefficients (NVPS-K 0.680 ~ 0.921, CPOT-K 0.710 ~ 0.896). Discriminant validity was supported with higher instrument scores during turning and endotracheal suctioning than that of NIBP. For criterion validity, the NVPS-K scores were correlated to the self-reported pain of the patients but not the CPOT-K scores. The areas under the ROC curve for the NVPS-K and CPOT-K were 0.748 and 0.696 with cutoff points of 1 and 2, respectively. Thus, the NVPS-K and CPOT-K had a sensitivity and specificity of 94.7% and 45.0%, and 60.5% and 75.0%, respectively. The NVPS-K and CPOT-K are reliable and valid tools to assess pain in nonverbal patient and thus, are recommended for the assessment of the pain in nonverbal patients.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.67-76
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• 2019

For hospice palliative care that provides comprehensive and general care, it is necessary to use assessment tools to objectively list issues and detail care plans. The initial assessment is a process of establishing an overall direction of care by identifying the patient's symptoms, social and spiritual issues and palliative care needs on the admission day or within one day of admission. This process is also used to identify the patients' and families' awareness of the illness, prognosis, treatment options and if the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) has been drafted. Consisting of 13 simple questions regarding the physical, mental, social, and spiritual domains, the Needs at the End-of-Life Screening Tool (NEST) is recommended as an initial assessment tool. Using specific assessment tools, a care plan is established for the issues identified in the initial assessment within three days of admission. A multidisciplinary assessment tool can be helpful in the physical domain. The psychosocial domain evaluates psychological distress, anxiety and depression. The social domain examines an ability to make decisions, understanding of the socioeconomic circumstance, family relationship, and death preparedness. A spiritual evaluation is also important, for which the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual WellBeing Scale (FACIT-Sp) or the Spiritual Health Inventory (SHI) can be used. The use of an assessment tool could not only contribute to pain mitigation a better quality of life for patients, but also provide systematic training for a multidisciplinary team; And the process itself could be a stepping stone for the better care provision.