title: Discordant patient pain level reporting between questionnaires and physician encounters of the same day.
abstract: We examined the consistency of pain reporting by patients in a community pain management practice in Michigan. We compared pain levels (range 0-10) entered by patients in questionnaires versus those provided during their face-to-face physician encounter on the same day. Both of these values were available for approximately 10,000 encounters during the study period (2010-2014). Two subpopulations of patients were identifiable. One was consistent in reporting worst or least pain levels on the questionnaire and during the provider encounter. The other was discordant. Factor analysis had previously identified severity scales for patient biopsychosocial characteristics derived from the full questionnaire. The two subpopulations differed in their factor profiles even though they had similar demographics. In general, pain reported directly to physicians was more correlated to biopsychosocial indicators. Pain self-reporting using questionnaires has often been assumed to be ground truth, but those obtained during the physician encounter may be more reliable.
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Juckett
authors.affiliation: ProCare Systems, Inc., Grand Rapids, MI.
authors.forename: Fred N
authors.initials: FN
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Michigan Pain Consultants, LLC, Grand Rapids, MI.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gostine
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI.
authors.forename: Eric P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Kasten
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI.
authors.forename: Philip L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gardiner
authors.affiliation: ProCare Systems, Inc., Grand Rapids, MI.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Risko
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D009323:Natural Language Processing; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010820:Physicians; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires