Developing a translation of the McGill pain questionnaire for cross‐cultural comparison: an example from Norway

Abstract

The ability to measure pain across diverse cultures is important for understanding the universal aspects of pain and expediting nursing intervention. The McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) is the most valid and reliable single multidimensional pain instrument available for measuring pain. Although it has been translated in several languages, most efforts, including two Norwegian translations, have resulted in a variety of new versions, all lacking sufficient faithfulness to the original MPQ to allow qualitative or quantitative cross-cultural comparisons. There is a need for direct translations that maintain the original denotation, connotation and numerical value of the MPQ and thus provide a base for future cross-cultural studies of pain. This paper reports on the development and initial testing of a direct translation of the McGill Pain Questionnaire into Norwegian (NMPQ). The translation process involved three phases: translation, back-translation and consensual. In order to evaluate its performance and validity, the NMPQ was administered to a group of adult surgical patients at two different points in time during the postoperative period. The NMPQ was examined for its feasibility, its sensitivity in detecting decreases in intensity of pain postoperatively and for construct validity. A visual analogue scale was used to check for converging validity, and Spielberger's state anxiety scale was used to assess discriminate validity. The initial testing of the NMPQ with adult surgical patients suggests that the NMPQ is culturally acceptable, relevant, sensitive to fluctuations in pain and numerically consistent with the original MPQ. The moderate levels of validity attend lend considerable assurance to the instruments readiness for use in cross-cultural studies of pain.

Psychophysical evaluation of the descriptors of pain in the postoperative

“…However, some of the most attributed descriptors belonged to the Portuguese version of the MPQ (7) and described different dimensions of the painful experience, as observed in other studies (9)(10)(11) .…”

“…In a sample of 52 adult patients submitted to different surgical procedures, it was observed that 84% of them chose a maximum of 10 descriptors from the 20 existing MPQ subgroups, with one descriptor from the affective group being chosen by 75% of the sample (10) . In another double blind study, aimed at comparing the effect of analgesia before and after the surgical incision, carried out among 42 adult patients submitted to elective surgeries, it was shown that the most frequently chosen descriptors in the postoperative phase, through the MPQ, were:…”

Categorization of postoperative pain descriptors in the sensitive, affective and evaluative dimensions of painful experiences

“…The literature shows that, in other cultures, acute pain is described by a higher number of words from the sensitive grouping, though descriptors from the affective grouping emerge in the description of postoperative pain as chosen by a great percentage of patients (10,13) . In addition, the instrument used by the authors mentioned was the MPQ (5) , in which the All of them presented a significant difference (p<0.005).…”

Effect Of High Resistance Weight Training On Reported Pain In Older Adults

“…Improved strength in the training group was associated with lower pain values as compared to the controls in four MPQ measures. Of all variables measured, PRIT may be the most significant because it includes all dimensions of pain and gives the greatest indication of overall perceived pain (Kim et al, 1995). The lower PRIT in the training group suggests that progressive resistance training of all major muscle groups, when performed three times per week for eight weeks, had a positive impact on perception of overall pain.…”