Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of six short screening questions on biopsychosocial aspects of chronic pain

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:

It is now recognized that psychosocial factors influence the patient’s painful experience. For the assessment of patients with chronic pain to become broader and focused on the real needs of the patient, it’s necessary to be aware of the existence or not of these factors. The objective of this study was to perform the translation and cross-cultural adaptation of six brief screening questions for biopsychosocial aspects in patients with chronic pain for the Brazilian context.

METHODS:

After the consent of the author of the instrument, the study followed the protocol of translation and cross-cultural adaptation according to international guidelines²², divided into 6 stages: initial translation, synthesis of translations, back-translation, expert committee, pre-test and analysis of content and appearance.

RESULTS:

The pre-test was applied to 40 patients with chronic pain, aged over 18 years. The mean age was 57±10 years, most of them had incomplete elementary education and were away from work. No difficulty in comprehension when answering the questions was perceived by the examiner or reported by the patients. The readability test score was of 100 points and the average time to apply the questions was 4 to 5 minutes.

CONCLUSION:

The results allow us to affirm that the six short questions can be used to assess psychosocial factors related to anxiety, stress, depression, fear of movement and catastrophization in patients with chronic pain because it’s easy to understand and quick to apply.

Keywords:
Chronic pain; Depression; Surveys and questionnaires; Translating