Pain perception and attitudes toward life-sustaining treatment in pediatric patients with disorders of consciousness: a survey of Chinese healthcare professionals - Takeaways - MDSpire

Pain perception and attitudes toward life-sustaining treatment in pediatric patients with disorders of consciousness: a survey of Chinese healthcare professionals

  • By

  • Chunyan Yang

  • Meiqi Li

  • Yufei Xue

  • Fangting Wang

  • Wangshan Huang

  • Xiaochen Liu

  • Xiangyue Xiao

  • Xuhang Fan

  • Feng Chen

  • Steven Laureys

  • Haibo Di

  • Siyu Dai

  • July 6, 2026

  • 0 min

Share

  • 1

    A survey of 656 Chinese healthcare professionals revealed differing attitudes toward life-sustaining treatment in pediatric patients with disorders of consciousness.

  • 2

    Support for limiting life-sustaining treatment was higher for unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (52.1%) than for minimally conscious state (31.6%) in third-person contexts.

  • 3

    In first-person scenarios, support for limiting treatment dropped significantly to 34.0% for unresponsive wakefulness syndrome and 18.7% for minimally conscious state.

  • 4

    High income was a predictor for supporting life-sustaining treatment limitation in third-person contexts, while childlessness increased willingness to continue treatment.

  • 5

    Pain perception was recognized by 89.9% for minimally conscious state and 65.1% for unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, affecting treatment limitation decisions.

Original Source(s)

Pain perception and attitudes toward life-sustaining treatment in pediatric patients with disorders of consciousness: a survey of Chinese healthcare professionals

  • by Chunyan Yang, Meiqi Li, Yufei Xue, Fangting Wang, Wangshan Huang, Xiaochen Liu, Xiangyue Xiao, Xuhang Fan, Feng Chen, Steven Laureys, Haibo Di, Siyu Dai

  • July 6, 2026

Related Content

Pelvic osseous foreign body identified during laparoscopic appendectomy in a child with acute appendicitis: a case report

The new presidential fitness test is a positive step, not the solution, experts say

Whose suffering counts? Research funding, scientific freedom, and the epistemic erasure of sexual and gender diverse children