How patients and physicians rate patients' pain in a French emergency department using a verbally administered numerical rating scale and a visual analog scale

摘要

Background: The visual analog scale (VAS) and the verbally administered numerical rating scale (VNRS) are widely used to assess patients' pain in a French emergency department (ED).Study objectives: The aim of this study was to know how patients and physicians use these two scales in a French emergency department (ED).Methods: Patients (N=198) and their physicians (N = 48) rated the patients' pain from 0 to 10 using both VAS and VNRS, both at arrival at and on discharge from the ED.Results: The ratings obtained by VAS and VNRS were highly correlated, for both patients and physicians. The Bland-Altman analysis indicated for the patients 95% of the differences between VNRS and VAS ratings were between -2.18 and 1.43 and for the physicians 95% of the differences between the two scales were between -0.80 and 0.67.Conclusion: Systematic differences between the scores on VRS and VAS were small. In addition, VNRS is easier and quicker to administer and more patients are able to use it.