No Difference in Patient Reported Outcome Measures for Patients with High Grit Scores

BACKGROUND: The importance of grit on maintaining overall wellness is well described, but less is known about how grit impacts surgical outcomes, specifically among pediatric patients. The pediatric-validated 5-item Grit Scale measures trait-level perseverance and passion for long-term goals. PURPOSE/HYPOTHESIS: The purpose of this study was to identify whether Grit scores were associated with baseline PROMIS Pain Interference and Pain Intensity scores. The investigators hypothesized that higher Grit would be associated with lower PROMIS Pain Interference and Pain Intensity scores. METHODS: Pediatric and adolescent patients who underwent lower extremity sports or trauma surgery between 2018-2020 at a single orthopaedic hospital preoperatively completed the Grit scale along with PROMIS Pain Interference and Pain Intensity questionnaires. Patients were excluded if they underwent multiple surgeries (with the exception of implant removal). Patients were divided into five groups based on their Grit quintile (<20(th), 20-40, 40-60, 60-80, >80(th)). Statistical analysis was run on IBM SPSS version 22. RESULTS: A total of 103 patients were included in analysis with a median preoperative Grit Score of 4.0. Spearman correlation between Grit cohort and PROMIS Pain Interference and Pain Intensity scores demonstrated no associations between higher Grit scores and higher PROMIS baseline Pain Interference and Pain Intensity scores (p = 0.612, 0.981, respectively). CONCLUSION: This study did not find associations between baseline Grit and PROMIS Pain Interference and Pain Intensity questionnaires. Therefore, Grit may be an independent construct that is not measured in the existing outcome scales and should be further investigated. Although not associated with baseline pain, its associations with postoperative pain improvement should be further studied.