“A journey to learn about pain”: the development and validation of a comic book about pain neuroscience education for children

BACKGROUND: Pain education resources for children using appropriate language and illustrations remain scarce. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to summarize the development process and testing for face and content validity of a structured comic book about pain education for children. METHODS: A first draft of a comic book was developed (Portuguese and English) based on pain education concepts. Experts in pediatric pain from different countries analyzed content, objectives, language, illustrations, layout, motivation, and cultural adjustment. A third draft developed in Portuguese considering experts' suggestions was presented to children and parents in Brazil. The total adequacy score was calculated from the sum of the scores obtained in each domain, divided by the maximum total score. Descriptive analysis is presented. RESULTS: The expert panel was composed of 11 (64.7%) physical therapists, and 6 (35.3%) psychologists. The total adequacy score (0-100%) was 87.74%. The third draft version of the comic book was presented to 28 children and the final version was presented to 16 children with a mean age of 9.6 years. Children were totally satisfied (n=4; 26.7%) or satisfied (n=9; 56.2%) with the story of the comic book. The readability of the comic book was considered suitable for grades 4 to 6 educational level. CONCLUSION: The comic book "A Journey to Learn about Pain" was validated for face and content validity by the expert panel and the Brazilian target population. This comic book is available in Portuguese and English and can be a potentially useful resource for children.