title: Empirical comparison of commonly used measures to evaluate pain treatment in cancer patients with chronic pain.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is limited consensus about the most appropriate measures to evaluate the adequacy of pain treatment in cancer patients. There are no known studies describing commonly used measures to simultaneously evaluate the adequacy of cancer pain treatment. The purpose of this study was to compare measures, which are frequently reported in the literature, to assess the adequacy of pain treatment in cancer patients with chronic pain. This study was part of a randomized controlled trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  In total, 313 cancer patients with a pain duration of at least 1 month were evaluated. After a baseline measure in the hospital, patients were followed up at 2, 4, and 8 weeks after discharge at home. Adequacy of cancer pain treatment was evaluated by means of four different types of outcome measures. The four types included three pain intensity markers based on patients' pain intensity, a pain relief scale, a patient satisfaction scale, and three pain management indexes that related patients' pain medication with pain intensity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proportion of inadequately treated pain patients varied extremely. Depending on the outcome measure used, the percentage of inadequately treated patients ranged from 16% to 91%. The choice of measure, rather than pain treatment itself, determined the proportion of inadequacy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is an urgent need for consensus about how to evaluate the effectiveness of pain treatment. Studies that evaluate adequacy of pain treatment should be interpreted with caution. Further research is necessary to elucidate the validity and reliability of outcome measures simultaneously.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychosocial Research and Epidemiology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute/Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital, Amsterdam. RdeWit@nki.nl
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: de Wit
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: van Dam
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Abu-Saad
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Loonstra
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zandbelt
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van Buuren
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: van der Heijden
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leenhouts
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic