title: Quality of pain intensity assessment reporting: ACTTION systematic review and recommendations.
abstract: Pain intensity assessments are used widely in human pain research, and their transparent reporting is crucial to interpreting study results. In this systematic review, we examined reporting of human pain intensity assessments and related elements (eg, administration frequency, time period assessed, type of pain) in all empirical pain studies with adult participants in 3 major pain journals (ie, European Journal of Pain, Journal of Pain, and Pain) between January 2011 and July 2012. Of the 262 articles identified, close to one-quarter (24%) ambiguously reported the pain intensity assessment. Elements related to the pain intensity assessment were frequently not reported: 31% did not identify the time period participants were asked to rate, 43% failed to report the type of pain intensity rated, and 58% did not report the specific location or pain condition rated. No differences were observed between randomized clinical trials and experimental (eg, studies involving experimental manipulation without random group assignment and blinding) and observational studies in reporting quality. The ability to understand study results, and to compare results between studies, is compromised when pain intensity assessments are not fully reported. Recommendations are presented regarding key details for investigators to consider when conducting and reporting pain intensity assessments in human adults.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This systematic review demonstrates that publications of pain research often incompletely report pain intensity assessments and their details (eg, administration frequency, type of pain). Failure to fully report details of pain intensity assessments creates ambiguity in interpreting research results. Recommendations are proposed to increase transparent reporting.
authors: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York. Electronic address: shannon1_smith@urmc.rochester.edu.
authors: Shannon M
authors: SM
authors: Smith
authors: School of Professional Psychology, Pacific University, Hillsboro, Oregon.
authors: Matthew
authors: M
authors: Hunsinger
authors: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York.
authors: Andrew
authors: A
authors: McKeown
authors: Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York.
authors: Melissa
authors: M
authors: Parkhurst
authors: Centrexion Corporation, Baltimore, Maryland.
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Allen
authors: Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium, Austin, Texas.
authors: Stephen
authors: S
authors: Kopko
authors: KAI Research, Inc, Rockville, Maryland.
authors: Yun
authors: Y
authors: Lu
authors: Evidera, Seattle, Washington.
authors: Hilary D
authors: HD
authors: Wilson
authors: LORA Group, LLC, Royal Oak, Maryland.
authors: Laurie B
authors: LB
authors: Burke
authors: Desjardins Associates, Maplewood, New Jersey.
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Desjardins
authors: Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York; Department of Neurology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York; Center for Human Experimental Therapeutics, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York.
authors: Michael P
authors: MP
authors: McDermott
authors: Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, United States Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland.
authors: Bob A
authors: BA
authors: Rappaport
authors: Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors: Dennis C
authors: DC
authors: Turk
authors: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York; Department of Neurology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York; Center for Human Experimental Therapeutics, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York.
authors: Robert H
authors: RH
authors: Dworkin
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D011787:Quality of Health Care
keywords: Pain intensity; pain measurement; pain research