• Caribbean
• diary
• pain
• sickle cell
• UK

Pain is a common symptom in children with sickle cell disease (SCD). Hospital admissions for treating pain are frequent in parts of the UK where SCD is prevalent.^1,2 In Jamaica, pain is often managed at home or in a day care setting and analgesic use is probably less.³ The question is often asked whether sickle cell pain is less frequent and severe in Caribbean children or whether they have developed effective coping skills to reduce the impact of pain on daily activities.⁴ Observations of better school attendance and less frequent visits to hospital when in pain would be consistent with the latter.

There have been previous reports using pain diaries in SCD.^5,6 In order to compare pain experiences, we designed a simple diary, and evaluated it in a simultaneous study of children in inner city London and on a Caribbean island.