The development and preliminary validation of a brief measure of chronic pain impact for use in the general population.
From a biopsychosocial perspective, assessing chronic pain's psychological impact should involve at minimum the measurement of pain severity, functional interference, and pain-related emotional burden. This article details the development of a brief instrument, the 15-item Profile of Chronic Pain: Screen (PCP:S), designed to address these three key elements in a national (US) sample of over 2400 individuals recruited via random digit dialing. Retest reliability, internal consistency, and preliminary validity were excellent. The scales also demonstrated minimal social desirability response bias. A series of confirmatory factor analyses on several distinct samples revealed a stable, 3-factor solution reflecting pain severity, interference, and emotional burden. Finally, national norms were developed by gender and three age groups. In view of its strong psychometric properties, the PCP:S has the potential to serve as a brief, cost-effective assessment tool for identifying individuals whose chronic pain merits more detailed psychosocial evaluation.
Ruehlman
Linda S
LS
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Box 871104, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
Karoly
Paul
P
Newton
Craig
C
Aiken
Leona S
LS
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014894:Weights and Measures