Most children and adolescents commonly experience pain, such as headache or gastric discomfort, which often restricts activities of daily living, according to a study conducted in Germany.

Dr. Angela Roth-Isigkeit, at the University of Schleswig-Holstein in Luebeck, and colleagues examined the impact of perceived pain on the daily lives and activities of 749 schoolchildren.

Parents of children in grades one to four were asked to complete pain questionnaires for their children. Children and adolescents from grade five onward completed the questionnaires themselves during class.

The researchers defined chronic pain as any continuous or recurrent pain lasting for three months or longer. The results of the study are published in the journal Pediatrics.

Of the children and adolescents included in the study, 622 (83 percent) reported that they had experienced pain within the last three months. The most prevalent types of pain were headache (61 percent), abdominal pain (43 percent), limb pain (34 percent) and back pain (30 percent).

The most frequent self-perceived triggers for pain were weather conditions (33 percent), illness (31 percent) and physical exertion (22 percent). These self-reported triggers varied between girls and boys.

Those who reported pain indicated that their pain caused sleep problems, inability to pursue hobbies, eating problems, school absences and inability to meet friends.

The prevalence of these restrictions in daily living increased with age, varied among participants with pain in different locations, and was significantly higher among girls than among boys of the same age, except between the ages of 4 and 9 years.

Overall, 51 percent of subjects with pain sought professional help for their conditions, and 52 percent reported using pain medications. The prevalence of physician visits and medication use increased with age.

“Health care utilization was predicted by increasing age, greater intensity of pain, and longer duration of pain but not by the frequency of pain,” Roth-Isigkeit’s team reports. “Only the intensity of pain was predictive of the degree of restrictions in daily activities resulting from pain.”

The researchers say more information is needed to “enable parents, teachers, and health care professionals to assist young people with pain management, allowing the young people to intervene positively in their conditions before they become recurrent or persistent.”

SOURCE: Pediatrics, February 2005.