Pain belief screening instrument: Development and preliminary validation of a screening instrument for disabling persistent pain.
OBJECTIVE
To develop and test the ability of a screening instrument to identify subgroups among primary healthcare patients with musculoskeletal pain. The Pain Belief Screening Instrument covers pain intensity, disability, self-efficacy, fear avoidance and catastrophizing.


METHODS
Cross-sectional, correlational and comparative study.


METHODS
Patients in primary healthcare (n1 = 215; n2 = 93) with a pain duration of 4 weeks or more were included.


METHODS
Items for the Pain Belief Screening Instrument were derived from principal component analyses of: the Self-efficacy Scale, the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia and the Catastrophizing subscale in the Coping Strategies Questionnaire. Cluster solutions of scores on the screening instrument and the original instruments were cross-tabulated. The reliability of items in the Pain Belief Screening Instrument was examined.


RESULTS
The screening instrument identified 2 groups: high- or low-risk profile for pain-related disability. Validity was in-between moderate and substantial (kappa = 0.61, p < 0.001). The reliability of each item in the Pain Belief Screening Instrument in relation to the corresponding item in the original instruments was moderate to high (rs 0.50-0.80, p < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
The screening instrument fairly well replicated subgroups identified by the original instruments. The reliability of items in the screening instrument was acceptable. Further testing of predictive validity for a primary healthcare population is needed..
Sandborgh
Maria
M
Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Section of Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala Science Park, Sweden. maria.sandborgh@pubcare.uu.se
Lindberg
Per
P
Denison
Eva
E
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D020377:Self Efficacy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires