The influence of site of stimulation, age, and gender on pain threshold in healthy children

Medical Affairs, Genzyme Tissue Repair, Naarden, The Netherlands. jeroenva@worldonline.ne

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Factors influencing mechanical pain thresholds (MPThs) in children are not understood. Reports conflict on whether MPThs increase with age. The purposes of this study were to determine whether MPTh values change with age in children and to investigate the influence of the site of stimulation and gender. SUBJECTS: Sixty-nine children of both genders, aged 6 to 17 years, were divided into two age groups: 6 to 11 years and 12 to 17 years. METHODS: Mechanical pain thresholds were determined by applying pressure three times on both sides of the body at the elbow, wrist, knee, and ankle and paraspinally at C-6, T-1, T-3, T-6, T-10, L-1, L-3, and L-5. The influence of body site, gender, and age on MPThs was analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance. The relationship between MPThs at different sites was analyzed by correlations and factor analysis. RESULTS: There was a trend for the paraspinal MPThs to be greater the more caudally they were located. The MPThs increased with age in the paraspinal region, but they did not increase with age at the extremities. The MPThs of the male subjects did not differ from those of the female subjects. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION: Measurements of MPTh can be reproducibly performed in children. The level of MPThs is reliant on age and body site. In MPTh studies in children, age- and site-matched controls seem to be more relevant than gender-matched controls.