TOPLINE:

Parents reported chronic pain more often in children with developmental disabilities, particularly those with cerebral palsy or seizures, than in those without such disabilities.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a cross‐sectional study to determine whether chronic pain as reported by parents was prevalent in children and adolescents with developmental disabilities.
• They analyzed survey data from 2016 to 2023 of 263,168 children aged 3-17 years (mean age, 10.2 years; 48.9% girls).
• Parents reported whether their child had any of 10 categories of developmental disabilities including seizures, cerebral palsy, hearing or speech difficulties, and learning disabilities.
• The outcome was the presence of repeated or chronic physical pain, such as headaches or other back or body pain, during the past 12 months.

TAKEAWAY:

• Chronic pain was more common in children with developmental disabilities than those without, corresponding to more than double the odds (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.31; 95% CI, 2.14-2.49), as reported by their parents.
• Each category of disability was linked to increased odds of chronic pain, with the largest associations for cerebral palsy (aOR, 7.14; 95% CI, 5.39-9.46) and seizures (aOR, 5.43; 95% CI, 4.28-6.88).
• Children with three or more developmental disabilities had the highest odds of chronic pain (aOR, 3.16; 95% CI, 2.79-3.57).
• Among children with disabilities, girls; those aged 13-17 years; those whose parents had lower education or income; and those with two or more adverse childhood experiences had increased odds of chronic pain.

IN PRACTICE:

“Targeted screening should be prioritized for such children, and when pain is identified, referral to a multidisciplinary pediatric pain clinic for treatment is recommended,” the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Wenming Shi, PhD, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. It was published online on March 30 in JAMA Pediatrics.

LIMITATIONS:

The study could not establish that disabilities caused chronic pain. Details on intensity of pain, location, and other confounders were missing.

DISCLOSURES:

The study received support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The authors did not report any conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.