A critical review of questionnaires for assessing pain-related disability.
Standardized questionnaires offer a practical and cost-effective means for measuring moderate disability. Fourteen questionnaires that can be used for assessing pain-related disability are reviewed in this article. Their comparative attributes are summarized. Most of the questionnaires obtain information about specific activities of daily living. They vary in terms of structure, content, and intended applications. Psychometric theory provides the optimal method for evaluating these questionnaires, highlighting the importance of reliability and validity. Being mindful of psychometric qualities will help the evaluator to select an appropriate questionnaire. The present array of existing instruments points toward a need for comparison studies that may eventually result in more uniform methods for evaluating pain-related disability.
Departments of Psychiatry and Anesthesiology, University of Rochester Pain Treatment Center, 300 Crittenden Blvd., 14642, Rochester, New York.
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Millard