Accuracy of retrospective pain measurement in patients with chronic pain

Haase,Ingo

doi:10.3892/mi.2023.95

Accuracy of retrospective pain measurement in patients with chronic pain

Authors:
- Ingo Haase
View Affiliations

Affiliations: Department of Research, Development and Quality Assurance, Clinic Group Enzensberg, D‑87629 Hopfen am See, Germany
Published online on: July 4, 2023 https://doi.org/10.3892/mi.2023.95
Article Number: 35
Copyright : © Haase . This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License [CC BY 4.0].

Metrics: Total Views: 0 (Spandidos Publications: | PMC Statistics: )

Metrics: Total PDF Downloads: 0 (Spandidos Publications: | PMC Statistics: )

Cited By (CrossRef): 0 citations Loading Articles...

Abstract

The use of pain scales that refer to a past time period is thereby based on the assumption that patients accurately remember their ‘average’, ‘greatest’ and ‘least’ pain. The present study addresses the validity of numerical pain rating scales that refer to a past period of time (herein, the past 7 days). Routine data from 94 patients with chronic pain were retrospectively analysed. Pain questionnaire data on the greatest, least and average pain during the past week and on current pain were compared with the mean value of entries in a pain diary from the corresponding period. The retrospectively assessed average, greatest and least pain values were consistently slightly higher than the corresponding values of daily current pain measured for the studied collective of chronic pain patients. Current pain (at the time of answering the questionnaire) better represents daily currently measured pain [intraclass correlation (ICC)=0.885] than retrospective individual measurements. The greatest correlation with averaged diary data was shown by the combination of questionnaire data on average, least and current pain (ICC=0.911). The high correlations between the questionnaire and diary data support the validity of retrospective pain surveys. However, the current status influences recall. Thus, composite retrospective pain data improve with the addition of current pain.

View Figures

View References

1	Bolton JE: Accuracy of recall of usual pain intensity in back pain patients. Pain. 83:533–539. 1999.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
2	Bolton JE, Humphreys BK and van Hedel HJA: Validity of weekly recall ratings of average pain intensity in neck pain patients. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 33:612–617. 2010.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
3	Jamison RN, Raymond SA, Slawsby EA, McHugo GJ and Baird JC: Pain assessment in patients with low back pain: Comparison of weekly recall and momentary electronic data. J Pain. 7:192–199. 2006.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
4	Perrot S, Rozenberg S, Moyse D, Legout V and Marty M: cercle d'étude de douleur en rhumatologie (CEDR). Comparison of daily, weekly or monthly pain assessments in hip and knee osteoarthritis. A 29-day prospective study. Joint Bone Spine. 78:510–515. 2011.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
5	Jensen MP, Turner LR, Turner JA and Romano JM: The use of multiple-item scales for pain intensity measurement in chronic pain patients. Pain. 67:35–40. 1996.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
6	Giske L, Sandvik L and Røe C: Comparison of daily and weekly retrospectively reported pain intensity in patients with localized and generalized musculoskeletal pain. Eur J Pain. 14:959–965. 2010.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
7	Stone AA, Broderick JE, Shiffman SS and Schwartz JE: Understanding recall of weekly pain from a momentary assessment perspective: Absolute agreement, between- and within-person consistency, and judged change in weekly pain. Pain. 107:61–69. 2004.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
8	Broderick JE, Schwartz JE, Vikingstad G, Pribbernow M, Grossman S and Stone AA: The accuracy of pain and fatigue items across different reporting periods. Pain. 139:146–157. 2008.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
9	Gerbershagen HU: Das Mainzer Stadienkonzept des Schmerzes: Eine Standortbestimmung. In: Antidepressiva als Analgetika. Aktueller Wissensstand und Therapeutische Praxis. Klingler D, Morawetz R, Thoden U, et al (eds.) Aarachne Verlag, Vienna, pp71-95, 1996 (In German).
10	Lefebvre JC and Keefe FJ: Memory for pain: The relationship of pain catastrophizing to the recall of daily rheumatoid arthritis pain. Clin J Pain. 18:56–63. 2002.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
11	Broderick JE, Stone AA, Calvanese P, Schwartz JE and Turk DC: Recalled pain ratings: A complex and poorly defined task. J Pain. 7:142–149. 2006.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
12	Berger SE, Vachon-Presseaua É, Abdullaha TB, Baria AT, Schnitzer TJ and Apkarian AV: Hippocampal morphology mediates biased memories of chronic pain. Neuroimage. 166:86–98. 2018.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
13	Revicki D, Hays RD, Cella D and Sloan J: Recommended methods for determining responsiveness and minimally important differences for patient-reported outcomes. J Clin Epidemiol. 61:102–109. 2008.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
14	Marty M, Rozenberg S, Legout V, Durand-Zaleski I, Moyse D, Henrotin Y and Perrot S: Section Rachis de la Société Française de Rhumatologie; Belgium Back Society. Influence of time, activities, and memory on the assessment of chronic low back pain intensity. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 34:1604–1609. 2009.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
15	Schneider S, Stone AA, Schwartz JE and Broderick JE: Peak and end effects in patients' daily recall of pain and fatigue: A within-subjects analysis. J Pain. 12:228–235. 2011.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
16	Koo TK and Li MY: A guideline of selecting and reporting intraclass correlation coefficients for reliability research. J Chiropr Med. 15:155–163. 2016.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
17	Jensen MP, Hu X, Potts SL and Gould EM: Single vs composite measures of pain intensity: Relative sensitivity for detecting treatment effects. Pain. 154:534–538. 2013.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
18	Chiarotto A, Boers M, Deyo RA, Buchbinder R, Corbin TP, Costa LOP, Foster NE, Grotle M, Koes BW, Kovacs FM, et al: Core outcome measurement instruments for clinical trials in nonspecific low back pain. Pain. 159:481–495. 2018.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
19	Jensen MP, Castarlenas E, Tomé-Pires C, de la Vega R, Sánchez-Rodríguez E and Miró J: The number of ratings needed for valid pain assessment in clinical trials: Replication and extension. Pain Med. 16:1764–1772. 2015.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
20	Pallegama RW, Ariyasinghe S, Perera ED and Treede RD: Influence of catastrophizing and personality traits on recalled ratings of acute pain experience in healthy young adults. Pain Med. 18:49–60. 2017.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
21	Turnbull A, Sculley D, Santos D, Maarj M, Chapple L, Gironès X, Fellas A and Coda A: Emerging tools to capture self-reported acute and chronic pain outcome in children and adolescents: A literature review. Med Sci (Basel). 10(6)2022.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar
22	Neustadt K, Deckert S, Kopkow C, Preißler A, Bosse B, Funke C, Jacobi L, Mattenklodt P, Nagel B, Seidel P, et al: What does pain intensity mean from the patient perspective?: A qualitative study on the patient perspective of pain intensity as an outcome parameter in treatment evaluation and on the interpretability of pain intensity measurements. Schmerz. 31:580–593. 2017.PubMed/NCBI View Article : Google Scholar : (In German).