Efforts to standardize the reporting of pain

Kane, Robert L; Bershadsky, Boris; Lin, Wen-Chieh; Rockwood, Todd; Wood, Kirkham

Next »Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
Volume 55, Issue 2 , Pages 105-110, February 2002

Efforts to standardize the reporting of pain

Robert L Kane
- Division of Health Services Research and Policy, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, University of Minnesota Clinical Outcomes Research Center, 420 Delaware Street SE (Mayo Mail Code 197), Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
- Corresponding author. Tel.: 617-624-1185; fax: 617-624-8448. E-mail address:(R.L. Kane)
Boris Bershadsky
- Division of Health Services Research and Policy, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, University of Minnesota Clinical Outcomes Research Center, 420 Delaware Street SE (Mayo Mail Code 197), Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Wen-Chieh Lin
- Division of Health Services Research and Policy, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, University of Minnesota Clinical Outcomes Research Center, 420 Delaware Street SE (Mayo Mail Code 197), Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Todd Rockwood
- Division of Health Services Research and Policy, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, University of Minnesota Clinical Outcomes Research Center, 420 Delaware Street SE (Mayo Mail Code 197), Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Kirkham Wood
- Division of Health Services Research and Policy, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Department of Orthopaedics, 420 Delaware Street SE (Mayo Mail Code 197), Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA

Received 5 December 2000; received in revised form 27 July 2001; accepted 30 July 2001.

Abstract

In an effort to develop a method for standardizing patients' reports of pain intensity, we tested seven different approaches to employing patients' ratings of four consistent types of pain as a means of correcting their reports (the average of the four standard pain measures, the average of the greater pains—finger in a door and tooth drilling, the average of the lesser pains—blister and leg cramp, the predicted back pain VAS from a regression of the standard pains, a conversion to the same scale based on population mean, the difference between individual mean and population mean of the four standard pain measures, and the difference between individual range and population range of the four standard pain measures). None of the adjustments proved to be a substantial improvement over the unstandardized approach. The best adjuster was the approach that used the average of the greater pain scores.

Keywords: Pain reporting, Pain assessment, Standardized measures