Pediatric pain screening identifies youth at risk of chronic pain in sickle cell disease

Background This study aimed to evaluate the preliminary validation and application of a pain screening tool to identify biopsychosocial risk factors for chronic pain in pediatric sickle cell disease (SCD) and classify youth with SCD into prognostic risk groups. Method Youth presenting to a pediatric SCD clinic completed the Pediatric Pain Screening Tool (PPST), a brief 9‐item self‐report questionnaire developed for rapid identification of risk in youth with pain complaints. Youth also completed a battery of standardized patient‐reported outcomes, including pain characteristics, pain burden, functional disability, pain interference, depressive symptoms, pain catastrophizing, and fear of pain. Healthcare utilization was extracted from medical chart review. Results Seventy‐three 8‐ to 18‐year‐olds (94% Black, 57% female) with SCD participated. The PPST demonstrated discriminant validity that ranged from fair to excellent (area under the curves (AUC) = 0.74–0.93, P values