PAIN MANAGEMENT Validity and reliability of two pain assessment tools in Brazilian children and adolescents Flavia Claro da Silva, Luiz Claudio Santos Thuler and Oscar A de Leon-Casasola Aims. The aim of this research is to examine the validity and reliability of the Brazilian version of the Revised Faces Pain Scale and the Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability scale. Background. Several self-report and behavioural pain tools have been shown to have good psychometric properties for the evaluation of pain in children and adolescents. This study was designed to analyse the correlation between two pain scales in school-age children and adolescents. Design. This is a validation study. Methods. This research studied 90 children between 7–17 years old. They received care at the outpatient and the inpatient departments of the National Cancer Institute of Brazil. A self-report tool, the Revised Faces Pain Scale, was used by children and adolescents to measure their pain, while the observational Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability scale was used by the healthcare providers to measure pain. Results. The Face, Legs, Activity, Cry and Consolability scale presented a good internal consistency (Cronbach a coeffi- cient = 0Æ76). There was a moderate-to-good correlation between the Face, Legs, Activity, Cry and Consolability scale and the Revised Faces Pain Scale scores (Spearman’s coefficient = 0Æ74). Conclusion. Findings support the reliability and the validity of the Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability scale and the Revised Faces Pain Scale as a measure of pain in the Brazilian population. Relevance to clinical practice. The validity and the reliability of both scales will improve pain evaluation and treatment in Brazilian children and adolescents, leading to a better pain control. Key words: Brazilians, cancer, children and adolescents, nursing, pain assessment, validation Accepted for publication: 6 November 2010 Background The International Association for Study of Pain (IASP) defines pain as ‘Unpleasant sensory and emotional experience asso- ciated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage’ (World Health Organization 1988). Recent reports have emphasised oncologic pain evaluations, focusing on adult patients. However, the majority of medical reports do not address cancer pain in children and adoles- cents. Researchers have to face many barriers when evaluat- Authors: Flavia Claro da Silva, MD, MSc, Anesthesiologist, Department of Pain Medicine, National Cancer Institute (INCA) and Department of Neurology, Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO); Luiz Claudio Santos Thuler, MD, MSc, PhD, Professor and Educational Coordinator, National Cancer Institute (INCA) and Department of Neurology, Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Oscar A de Leon-Casasola, MD, Professor of Anesthesiology and Medicine and Vice-Chair for Clinical Affairs, Department of Anesthesiology, University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Buffalo, NY and Chief of Pain Medicine and Professor of Oncology, Pain Management Services, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA Correspondence: Flavia Claro da Silva, Anesthesiologist, Hospital Universita ´ rio Gafre ´e e Guinle-HUGG, Rua Mariz e Barros, 775, CEP 20270-004, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Telephone: +55 21 2264 2123. E-mail: fla_claro@hotmail.com 1842 Ó 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20, 1842–1848 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2010.03662.x