title: Development and validation of a short-form Pain Medication Attitudes Questionnaire (PMAQ-14).
abstract: Attitudes to pain medication are important aspects of adjustment to chronic pain. They are measured by the 47-item Pain Medication Attitudes Questionnaire (PMAQ). To measure those attitudes more quickly and easily, we developed and evaluated a 14-item PMAQ using data from 3 separate surveys of people with pain in the general population. In survey 1, participants (n = 295) completed the 47-item PMAQ and measures of pain, analgesic use, analgesic dependence, and attitudes to self-medication. For each of the 7 PMAQ scales, the 2 items that best preserved the content of the full parent scales were identified using correlation and regression. The 2-item and full parent scales had very similar relationships with other measures, indicating that validity had been maintained. The resulting 14-item PMAQ was then completed by participants in survey 2 (n = 241) and survey 3 (n = 147), along with the same other measures as in survey 1. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the 14-item PMAQ retained the 7-factor structure of the 47-item version, and correlations with other measures showed that it retained the validity of the 47-item version. The PMAQ scale Need was the most significant independent predictor of analgesic dependence in each of 4 separate multiple regression analyses. This short form of the PMAQ allows attitudes to pain medications to be measured in a valid and more efficient way.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Psychological Research, University of Derby, Derby, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Elander
authors.forename: Omimah
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Said
authors.forename: Frances A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Maratos
authors.forename: Ada
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dys
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: Malcolm B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Schofield
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001290:Attitude; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology; D010147:Pain Measurement; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000700:Analgesics