Measurement of pain in juvenile chronic polyarthritis.

Abstract

Pain can be measured using a visual analogue scale in children with juvenile chronic polyarthritis. In a study of 100 children failures were uncommon after the age of 5. Pain severity was strikingly lower than in a group of adults with rheumatoid arthritis and correlated poorly with other measures of disease severity and activity. Because of the low scores, measurement of pain is likely to be less useful in children for assessing the effects of treatment than it is adults.