Pain Assessment–Can it be Done with a Computerised System? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Nuno Pombo, Nuno Garcia, Kouamana Bousson, Susanna Spinsante and Ivan Chorbev
Additional contact information
Nuno Pombo: Instituto de Telecomunicações (Telecommunications Institute), University of Beira Interior, Covilhã 6200-001, Portugal
Nuno Garcia: Instituto de Telecomunicações (Telecommunications Institute), University of Beira Interior, Covilhã 6200-001, Portugal
Kouamana Bousson: Department of Aerospace Sciences, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã 6200-001, Portugal
Susanna Spinsante: Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona 60121, Italy
Ivan Chorbev: Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University Skopje, Skopje 1000, Macedonia

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-27

Abstract: Background : Mobile and web technologies are becoming increasingly used to support the treatment of chronic pain conditions. However, the subjectivity of pain perception makes its management and evaluation very difficult. Pain treatment requires a multi-dimensional approach (e.g., sensory, affective, cognitive) whence the evidence of technology effects across dimensions is lacking. This study aims to describe computerised monitoring systems and to suggest a methodology, based on statistical analysis, to evaluate their effects on pain assessment. Methods : We conducted a review of the English-language literature about computerised systems related to chronic pain complaints that included data collected via mobile devices or Internet, published since 2000 in three relevant bibliographical databases such as BioMed Central, PubMed Central and ScienceDirect. The extracted data include: objective and duration of the study, age and condition of the participants, and type of collected information (e.g., questionnaires, scales). Results : Sixty-two studies were included, encompassing 13,338 participants. A total of 50 (81%) studies related to mobile systems, and 12 (19%) related to web-based systems. Technology and pen-and-paper approaches presented equivalent outcomes related with pain intensity. Conclusions : The adoption of technology was revealed as accurate and feasible as pen-and-paper methods. The proposed assessment model based on data fusion combined with a qualitative assessment method was revealed to be suitable. Data integration raises several concerns and challenges to the design, development and application of monitoring systems applied to pain.

Keywords: mhealth; pain diaries; pain scales; pain assessment; chronic pain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/4/415/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/4/415/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:4:p:415-:d:68121

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().