Chronic pain has a significant impact on quality of life. Measurement of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is essential in the assessment of pain management outcomes, but different instruments have produced varying results. We assessed the validity of 2 HRQoL instruments, EuroQol 5 dimensions questionnaire (EQ-5D) and 15-dimensional health-related quality of life measure (15D), in patients with challenging chronic pain. Three hundred ninety-one chronic noncancer pain patients referred to tertiary pain clinics completed EQ-5D, 15D, and a broad set of questionnaires mapping socioeconomic factors, self-rated health, pain intensity and interference, depression, pain acceptance, pain-related anxiety, and sleep. The 2 HRQoL instruments were compared with each other, and head-to-head comparisons were made with self-rated health and the symptom-specific questionnaires. 15D and EQ-5D showed moderate agreement (ρ = 0.66), but there were also considerable differences between the instruments. 15D correlated better with self-rated health than EQ-5D (ρ = -0.62 vs -0.45, P < 0.001). The EQ-5D appeared less sensitive than 15D especially in those patients with chronic pain who had a better health status. The principal component constructed from measures of pain intensity and interference, anxiety, pain acceptance, depression, and sleep had higher standardized beta coefficients with 15D than with EQ-5D (P = 0.038). The principal component explained more variance in the 15D (R = 0.65) than in the EQ-5D (R = 0.43). The study identified differences in the pain-related variables between the EQ-5D and the 15D. In patients with chronic pain, both instruments are valid, but 15D appears somewhat more sensitive than EQ-5D.

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measurement aims to capture the complete, subjective health state of the patients and to comprehensively evaluate treatment outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess, using the 15D HRQoL instrument, HRQoL in a sample of 1528 chronic pain patients, referred to the multidisciplinary pain clinic of the Helsinki University Hospital during 2004 to 2012. The 15D results of the chronic pain patients were compared with those of a matched general population. To analyse the properties of the 15D, the results were compared with the preadmission questionnaire of the pain clinic, containing questions about background factors, aspects of the pain, and its impact on life. The mean 15D score of the chronic pain patients was one of the lowest reported using 15D; 0.710 vs 0.922 in the general population. It equalled the score of advanced cancer patients in palliative care. The 15D scores were normally distributed, and 15D showed both statistically and clinically significant discriminative power in pain-related background factors. Visual analogue scale on pain intensity, visual analogue scale on pain-related distress, and the impact of pain on daily life correlated well with the 15D score. Pain intensity did not have independent predictive value on the score. The results indicate heavy perceived burden of illness in chronic pain patients. In light of the questions analysed, 15D appears sensitive and discriminative in chronic pain patients in tertiary care. Instead of pain intensity, the impaired HRQoL in chronic pain was mainly because of the psychosocial aspects of pain.

Background Multidisciplinary pain management (MPM) is a generally accepted method for treating chronic pain, but heterogeneous outcome measures provide only limited conclusions concerning its effectiveness. Therefore, further studies on the effectiveness of MPM are needed to identify subgroups of patients who benefit, or do not benefit, from these interventions. Our aim was to analyse health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) changes after MPM and to identify factors associated with treatment outcomes. Methods We carried out a real world observational follow‐up study of chronic pain patients referred to a tertiary multidisciplinary outpatient pain clinic to describe, using the validated HRQoL instrument 15D, the HRQoL change after MPM and to identify factors associated with this change. 1,043 patients responded to the 15D HRQoL questionnaire at baseline and 12 months after the start of treatment. Background data were collected from the pre‐admission questionnaire of the pain clinic. Results Fifty‐three percent of the patients reported a clinically important improvement and, of these, 81% had a major improvement. Thirty‐five percent reported a clinically important deterioration, and 12% had no change in HRQoL. Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that major improvement was positively associated with shorter duration of pain (<3 years), worse baseline HRQoL, higher education levels and being employed. Conclusions The majority of the patients reported significant HRQoL improvement after multidisciplinary pain management. Better understanding of the factors associated with treatment outcomes is needed to meet the needs of those who had unfavourable outcomes. Significance Multidisciplinary pain management (MPM) increases the health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) in most patients. More research into factors associated with HRQoL change is needed to understand why not all patients benefit from MPM and how MPM approaches could be improved to meet the needs of these patients.