Background and Aims: Pain has been unrecognized and undertreated throughout the history of neonatal care. Misconceptions about the infant's ability to feel, remember, and express pain contribute to this long-standing problem. Vaccination is one of the most important causes of neonatal pain as all the children are vaccinated throughout the infancy and childhood against the vaccine preventable diseases. So the present study is being planned to study the effects of sex, birth weight and race on pain perception

Methods: we observed 400 neonates receiving routine dose of Bcg and Hepatitis B vaccine given at birth. Pain was assessed on NIPS scale 30 second after first injection and 30 seconds after second injection. The two injections were given 2 minutes apart. 

Results: NIPS at the end of vaccination procedure in male neonates was 12.52±5.05   and in female neonates the score was 12.57±4.7, with p value of 0.823. In neontes with birth weight <3kg the NIPS score at the end of vaccination procedure was 12.44±4.91and in neontes with birth weight >3kg, the score was 12.7±4.88 with p value of 0.587, which was not significant. In the two race groups, the score in the neontes of Indo-Aryan group was 13.39±4.5 and in mongoloid neontes nips score was 5.87±1.89   with p value of <0.0001   which was significant.

Conclusion: there was no significant effect of gender and birth weight on pain perceived due to vaccination given at birth in the neontes. Pain perceived was more in the neontes of indo-Aryan race as compared to the neontes of mongoloid race.

Keywords: Vaccination, Neonatal Infant Pain Scale Score, Neonate, Pain, Bcg Vaccine, Hepatitis B Vaccine, Race, Gender, Birth Weight.

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Dr Pratima Thakur

Junior Resident, Department of Paediatrics

IGMC Shimla - 171001, Himachal Pradesh, India

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