COMFORTneo scale: a reliable and valid instrument to measure prolonged pain in neonates?

Naomi J Meesters; Tinne Dilles; Joost van Rosmalen; Gerbrich E van den Bosch; Sinno H P Simons; Monique van Dijk

doi:10.1038/s41372-023-01628-1

COMFORTneo scale: a reliable and valid instrument to measure prolonged pain in neonates?

J Perinatol. 2023 May;43(5):595-600. doi: 10.1038/s41372-023-01628-1. Epub 2023 Feb 6.

Authors

Naomi J Meesters¹, Tinne Dilles², Joost van Rosmalen^{3

4}, Gerbrich E van den Bosch⁵, Sinno H P Simons⁵, Monique van Dijk^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology, Erasmus MC -Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. n.meesters@erasmusmc.nl.
² Nursing and Midwifery Sciences, Centre for Research and Innovation in Care, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
³ Department of Biostatistics, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology, Erasmus MC -Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
⁶ Intensive Care and Department of Pediatric Surgery, Erasmus MC -Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

PMID: 36746985
DOI: 10.1038/s41372-023-01628-1

Abstract

Objective: We studied the reliability and validity of the COMFORTneo scale, designed to measure neonatal prolonged pain.

Study design: This prospective observational study evaluated four clinimetric properties of the COMFORTneo scale from NICU nurses' assessments of neonates' pain. Intra-rater reliability was determined from three video fragments at two time points. Inter-rater reliability and construct validity were determined in five neonates per nurse with the COMFORTneo and numeric rating scales (NRS) for pain and distress. Pain scores using N-PASS were correlated with COMFORTneo scores to further evaluate construct validity.

Result: Intra-rater reliability: Twenty-two nurses assessed pain twice with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.70. Inter-rater reliability: The ICC for 310 COMFORTneo scores together with 62 nurses was 0.93. Construct validity: Correlation between COMFORTneo and NRS pain, distress, and N-PASS was 0.34, 0.72, and 0.70, respectively.

Conclusion: The COMFORTneo can be used to reliably and validly assess pain in NICU patients.

Publication types

Observational Study

MeSH terms

Humans
Infant, Newborn
Pain Measurement
Pain* / diagnosis
Prospective Studies
Reproducibility of Results