Was bedeutet Schmerzintensität aus Sicht der Patienten? Eine qualitative Studie zur Patientenperspektive auf Schmerzstärke als Konstrukt in der Therapieevaluation und die Interpretierbarkeit der Schmerzstärkemessung

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Background: Pain intensity (PI) is a common outcome parameter in effectiveness studies on interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy (IMPT), despite the fact that IMPT highlights dealing with rather than reducing chronic pain. Moreover, the measurement of pain intensity as a highly subjective experience is problematic. Patient participation is absolutely essential to examine the relevance of PI as a criterion of treatment success as well as to select/develop suitable measurement methods. Method: A qualitative multicenter study was conducted using focus groups with 69 patients (18–77 years; 80% female) at four different IMPT centers in Germany to discuss pain intensity as a therapy outcome parameter in IMPT, as well as the interpretability and feasibility of common measurement methods. Results: The discussions emphasized that PI is a relevant, but not the primary, outcome in IMPT for patients. Patients’ statements also demonstrate that there are some problems in measuring PI, for instance with regard to pain attacks. Conclusions: The focus group discussions suggested that, due to the highly subjective nature of PI, as well as (verbal) inaccuracies and a lack of standardization in common instruments, the measurement of pain intensity is a challenging task. These limitations should be taken into account in future studies.

Translated title of the contribution
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

Details

Original languageGerman
Pages (from-to)580-593
Number of pages14
JournalSchmerz
Volume31
Issue number6
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2017
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 28660417

Keywords

Keywords

  • Focus groups, Interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy, Pain intensity, Pain measurement, Patient participation