The Norwegian version of the American Pain Society Patient Outcome Questionnaire: reliability and validity of three subscales.
OBJECTIVE
To examine some psychometric properties of the Norwegian version of the American Pain Society's Patient Outcome Questionnaire(APS-POQ-N).


BACKGROUND
This study is part of an investigation of Norwegian orthopaedic surgical patients, where the overall aim is to evaluate the quality of postoperative pain management. Therefore, an adequate questionnaire on the quality of postoperative pain management was needed.


METHODS
The sample included 114 orthopaedic postoperative patients. The instrument consists of three main subscales, namely the modified Brief Pain Inventory(modified BPI subscale), the subscale on satisfaction with pain management(Satisfaction subscale) and the subscale on beliefs about pain management (Beliefs subscale), together with six single items about pain management. The reliability of these three main subscales was estimated using Cronbach's alpha coefficients and the construct validity was evaluated using principal-axis factor analysis with oblimin rotation.


RESULTS
Face and content validity of the APS-POQ-N were satisfactory, while the modified BPI and the Beliefs subscales showed acceptable internal consistency but the Satisfaction subscale did not. Factor analyses yielded a three-factor solution for the modified BPI, a one-factor solution for the Satisfaction subscale and a two-factor solution for the Beliefs subscale.


CONCLUSIONS
The APS-POQ-N appears, in general, to be an acceptable method of evaluating postoperative pain management in orthopaedic postoperative patients.However, the alpha value of the Satisfaction subscale was low, and thus the subscale is not recommended for this purpose.
Dihle
Alfhild
A
Faculty of Nursing, Oslo University College, Oslo, Norway. alfhild.dihle@su.hio.no
Helseth
Sølvi
S
Christophersen
Knut-Andreas
KA
D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D019637:Orthopedic Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000523:psychology; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods* / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011182:Postoperative Care / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014175:Translating