Lack of interchangeability between visual analogue and verbal rating pain scales: a cross sectional description of pain etiology groups

Lund, Irène; Lundeberg, Thomas; Sandberg, Louise; Budh, Cecilia Norrbrink; Kowalski, Jan; Svensson, Elisabeth

doi:10.1186/1471-2288-5-31

Cited by 133 publications

(144 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Th e VAS scale appears to be more complicated than NRS and VRS 185 . Despite the fact that the scales are highly correlated, they can not be used interchangeably 260,360 .…”

Section: Verbal Rating Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Treatment of osteochondral defects of the talus

Bergen

Leeuw

Dijk

2008

Revue de Chirurgie Orthopédique et Réparatrice de l'Appareil Mo

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“…Th e VAS scale appears to be more complicated than NRS and VRS 185 . Despite the fact that the scales are highly correlated, they can not be used interchangeably 260,360 .…”

Section: Verbal Rating Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Treatment of osteochondral defects of the talus

Bergen

Leeuw

Dijk

2008

Revue de Chirurgie Orthopédique et Réparatrice de l'Appareil Mo

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“…However, each measure has strengths and weaknesses. For example, research indicates that VASs have more ratio scale qualities than other pain intensity scales for groups of patients (but not necessarily for individuals) [13,42,44,45], although some authors note that VASs scales do not always have linear qualities and are not always normally distributed [37,55]. Pain scales with more response levels (eg, the VAS or 0-10 NRS relative to the 6-point FPS-R or 4-point VRS) have the potential to be more sensitive [6,9,55], although more response categories do not necessarily translate to more responsivity [7,19,29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Validity of four pain intensity rating scales

Ferreira-Valente

Pais-Ribeiro

Jensen

2011

Pain

1,418

931

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a b s t r a c tThe Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), Verbal Rating Scale (VRS), and the Faces Pain Scale-Revised (FPS-R) are among the most commonly used measures of pain intensity in clinical and research settings. Although evidence supports their validity as measures of pain intensity, few studies have compared them with respect to the critical validity criteria of responsivity, and no experiment has directly compared all 4 measures in the same study. The current study compared the relative validity of VAS, NRS, VRS, and FPS-R for detecting differences in painful stimulus intensity and differences between men and women in response to experimentally induced pain. One hundred twenty-seven subjects underwent four 20-second cold pressor trials with temperature order counterbalanced across 1°C, 3°C, 5°C, and 7°C and rated pain intensity using all 4 scales. Results showed statistically significant differences in pain intensity between temperatures for each scale, with lower temperatures resulting in higher pain intensity. The order of responsivity was as follows: NRS, VAS, VRS, and FPS-R. However, there were relatively small differences in the responsivity between scales. A statistically significant sex main effect was also found for the NRS, VRS, and FPS-R. The findings are consistent with previous studies supporting the validity of each scale. The most support emerged for the NRS as being both (1) most responsive and (2) able to detect sex differences in pain intensity. The results also provide support for the validity of the scales for use in Portuguese samples. Ó

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“…The 0-10 Numeric rating Scale is one of those which has been extensively used in assessing pain (Kendrick & Strout, 2005). Among other scales that assess subjective phenomena such as Likert Scales (Grant et al, 1999), Visual Analogue Scale (Crichton, 2001), Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) (Williamson & Hoggart, 2005), Verbal Rating Scales (VRS) (Lund et al, 2005), the Numeric Rating Scale is more advantageous because: it is easy to administer and score, there are no age-related difficulties in using the scale, it can be delivered either graphically or verbally, and it is an interval level scale and therefore affords parametric statistical testing (Williamson & Hoggart, 2005). The NRS is an 11 point scale where the end points are the extremes of the subjective or perceived feeling where one end denotes no feeling, and the other, the highest or worst as appropriate (Williamson & Hoggart, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the Numeric Rating Scale for perception of effort during isometric elbow flexion exercise

Nowicky

2011

Eur J Appl Physiol

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The aim of the study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Numerical Rating Scale (0-10 NRS) for rating perception of effort during isometric elbow flexion in healthy people. 33 individuals (32±8 years old) participated in the study. Three re-test measurements within one session and three weekly sessions were undertaken to determine the reliability of the scale. The sensitivity of the scale following 10min isometric fatiguing exercise of the elbow flexors as well as the correlation of the effort with the electromyographic (EMG) activity of the flexor muscles were tested. Perception of effort was tested during isometric elbow flexion at 10, 30, 50, 70, 90, and 100% MVC. The 0-10 NRS demonstrated an excellent test-retest reliability (Intra Class Correlation=0.99 between measurements taken within a session and 0.96 between 3 consecutive weekly sessions). Exploratory curve fitting for the relationship between effort ratings and voluntary force, and underlying EMG showed that both are best described by power functions (y=ax b ). There were also strong correlations (range 0.89 to 0.95) between effort ratings and EMG recordings of all flexor muscles supporting the concurrent criterion validity of the measure. The 0-10 NRS was sensitive enough to detect changes of the perceived effort following fatigue and significantly increased at the level of voluntary contraction used in its assessment (p<0.001). These findings suggest the 0-10 NRS is a valid and reliable scale for rating perception of effort in healthy individuals. Future research should seek to establish the validity of the 0-10 NRS in clinical settings.

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Lack of interchangeability between visual analogue and verbal rating pain scales: a cross sectional description of pain etiology groups

Cited by 133 publications

References 28 publications

Treatment of osteochondral defects of the talus

Treatment of osteochondral defects of the talus

Validity of four pain intensity rating scales

Evaluation of the Numeric Rating Scale for perception of effort during isometric elbow flexion exercise

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