The use of abstract animations and a graphical body image for assessing pain outcomes among adults with sickle cell disease

Painimation, a novel digital pain assessment tool, allows patients to communicate their pain quality, intensity, and location using abstract animations (painimations) and a paintable body image. This study determined the construct validity of painimations and body image measures by testing correlations with validated pain outcomes in adults with sickle cell disease (SCD). Analyses used baseline data from a multisite randomized trial of 359 adults with SCD and chronic pain. Participants completed questionnaires on demographics, pain severity, frequency and interference, catastrophizing, opioid use, mood and quality of life, plus the Painimation app. Participants were categorized by selected painimations, and were split into groups based on the proportion of painted body image. Potential confounding was evaluated by age, gender, race, education, disability, site, depression, and anxiety. The 'shooting' painimation was strongly associated with daily pain intensity, pain interference, frequency, and severity. 'Electrifying' was associated with daily pain and opioid misuse, while greater body area in pain correlated with worse outcomes across all pain measures. Both painimations and body image measures correlated with validated pain outcomes, quality of life and mental health measures. This demonstrates animations and body image data can assess SCD pain severity, potentially with more accuracy than a 0–10 scale. Future research will explore whether Painimation can differentiate biological and psychosocial pain components.

Perspective

This article presents the preliminary construct validity of Painimation in SCD by examining the associations of “painimations” and body area image data with daily e-diary and traditional self-report pain outcomes.