Premium
COMFORT behaviour scale and skin conductance activity: what are they really measuring?
Author(s) -
Tristão Rosana Maria,
Garcia Naiara Viudes Martins,
Jesus José Alfredo Lacerda,
Tomaz Carlos
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
acta paediatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/apa.12325
Subject(s) - skin conductance , crying , medicine , heel , wilcoxon signed rank test , anxiety , conductance , anesthesia , physical therapy , anatomy , psychiatry , biomedical engineering , mann–whitney u test , mathematics , combinatorics
Aim To assess how efficiently the COMFORT behaviour scale measures acute pain in neonates, in comparison with skin conductance activity, a validated measure of pain and stress. Methods Images of 36 newborns were analysed before, during and after painful heel pricks to measure glucose levels and compared with skin conductance activity variables. Results Scale indicators and skin conductance variables were sensitive to changes in the periods ‘during‐before’ and ‘during‐after’ (Wilcoxon's test, p < 0.01). Significant values were found between all scale indicators and number of waves for Kendall's coefficient (p < 0.05), although responses differed when it came to how long they took to increase and correlations varied from fair to moderate (r < 0.6). Facial tension was more closely related to 15 sec after the painful event, while crying and calmness were more closely related to the later intervals (30 and 180 sec). Conclusion All scale indicators were related to skin conductance activity in all periods, indicating pain perception. Facial tension was the most efficient indicator, while others varied in performance after painful events and possibly indicated stress after trauma. These results are discussed from a phenomenological approach and in an anxiety paradigm.