• Edith Villeneuve, Chantal Wood, Marc Zabalia, Lynn M Breau, Christine Lévêque, Martine Hennequin, Estelle Fall, Laurent Vallet, Marie-Claude Grégoire, and Geneviève Breau.
• Psychologie des Actions Langagières et Motrices, Université de Caen Basse-Normandie, MRSH, Esplanade de la Paix 14032, Caen Cedex 5, France. marc.zabalia@unicaen.fr
• Can J Anaesth. 2011 Nov 1;58(11):1016-23.

PurposeThe aim of the study was to test the validity of a French language version of the Non-Communicating Children's Pain Checklist - Postoperative Version (NCCPC-PV): grille d'évaluation de la douleur-déficience intellectuelle (GED-DI).MethodsWe assessed the intensity of pain in 87 intellectually disabled surgical patients recruited in four Canadian and French hospitals in the pre- and post-operative settings using the GED-DI, a 100-mm visual analogue pain scale (VAS) and the Rosen sedation scale. The validity of the GED-DI was measured by the difference in scores between pre- and postoperative conditions. The checklist was made up of 30 items divided into seven subgroups. Items were rated from 0 to 3 for a total score ranging from 0 to 90 points.ResultsThe mean (standard deviation) age of the patients was 17 (11) yr and the mean mental age 24.5 (24) months. The total GED-DI score was 6.1 (4.9) pre- and 13.4 (11.2) post-surgery (P < 0.001). All subgroups had a higher score after surgery (P < 0.001). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, comparing the absence of pain to mild pain scores and moderate to severe pain scores, showed a cutoff at 6 (mild pain) and 11 (moderate to severe pain).ConclusionThe French version of the NCCPC-PV can be used to assess pain in non-communicating patients with intellectual disabilities in a postoperative setting. It has good content validity, as the total pre-surgery score for the GED-DI was significantly lower than the postoperative score, and showed a good concurrent validity when compared to the VAS.

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