The Short‐Form McGill Pain Questionnaire as an outcome measure: Test–retest reliability and responsiveness to change

Abstract

Abilities of the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire to assess change have scarcely been addressed in previous studies. The aim of the present study was to examine test-retest reliability, sensitivity to change and responsiveness to clinically important change using a Norwegian version (NSF-MPQ) in different groups of patients. ICC(1,1) values for test-retest reliability (relative reliability) assessed 1-3 days apart for total, sensory and affective scores were, respectively, 0.75, 0.76 and 0.62 in patients with musculoskeletal pain (n=58), and 0.93, 0.95 and 0.79 in patients with rheumatic pain (n=25). Variability in total scores (absolute reliability) was less in patients with rheumatic pain (within-subject standard deviation, S(w)=2.70) than in patients with musculoskeletal pain (S(w)=4.28). Sensitivity to change by standardized response mean (SRM) was mostly large (>0.80) for three patient groups reporting improvement after treatment. More sensitivity to change was demonstrated by the total and sensory scores than by the affective score, and sensitivity of the total score was similarly good to capture improvement as the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Indication was provided that mean improvement of groups in NSF-MPQ total scores should be >5 on the 0-45 scale to demonstrate a clinically important change. Responsiveness to clinically important change by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was modest, as area under the curve indicating ability to discriminate improved and not improved patients with musculoskeletal pain, was only 0.61. The study indicates mostly satisfactory test-retest reliability and responsiveness values of the NSF-MPQ, but shows that the measurement properties vary between groups of patients with pain.

Physiotherapy Interventions and the Outcomes for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) Type 1 on the South Island of New Zealand – A Longitudinal, Prospective Case Series

“…This supports the evidence that early diagnosis can improve outcomes [9,25]. Clinically important changes are represented in the QuickDASH as a change of 15 points [26]; WHODAS as 15 [27]; MPQ PRI as 5 with NRS as 3 [28]; FFI as 10 [21]. This sample shows significant clinical improvement across all measures 6 months after commencing physiotherapy.…”

Responsiveness of the VAS and McGill Pain Questionnaire in Measuring Changes in Musculoskeletal Pain

“…Another study 1 suggests that the VAS-24 may be more responsive than the VAS-now and MPQ for detecting changes in pain. A third study 2 found that the VAS and NSF-MPQ had high sensitivity in detecting improvement, but the VAS may more accurately reflect an unchanged or worsened condition than the NSF-MPQ. One challenge in Participants 76 active individuals who had lumbar discectomy, laminectomy, or fusion (55.4 ± 16.8 y of age).…”

“…1 Similarly, the Norwegian Short-Form MPQ (NSF-MPQ) was developed to mirror the original MPQ measure through the inclusion of 15 common Norwegian pain descriptors. 2 The Visual Analog Scale (VAS) measures pain quantitatively by measuring the distance in millimeters from the left anchor of a 100-mm line to a mark made by the subject. The VAS-now and the VAS-24 are the same as the standard VAS form but refer to when the outcome measure is administered.…”

“…2 It measures qualitative pain using 78 pain descriptors. It could also be described as a quantitative measure of pain based on the pain-rating index calculated by summing the rank values of words in all of the descriptor groups.…”

Factors Influencing the Severity of Pain in Patients With Peripheral Diabetic Neuropathy

“…1; the remaining four are viewed as affective terms associated with experiencing pain [13]. The ordinal scale used to score the 15 terms comprises four levels [14]: 0 (no pain), 1 (mild pain), 2 (moderate pain), and 3 (severe pain).…”