Describing and Differentiating Pain Responses from Non-pain Responses in Low Birth Weight Pre-term Infants

by McCray, James

This study sought to establish the utility of heart rate variability measurement as a tool to assess pain in low birth weight premature infants. It used a repeated measures design with secondary analysis and paired samples. Subjects were a subset of 10 infants who were less than 28 weeks gestational age. Heart rate increased significantly following a heel stick and remained unchanged following an axillary temperature measurement. There was a significant increase in heart rate during what is thought to be pain that did not occur following a presumably non-painful stimulus. Heart rate was shown to be a sensitive indicator of pain in this sample of infants. No support was found for the use of heart rate variability as a pain measure in this age group and post-conception age range.