Validity of four pain intensity rating scales
Top Cited Papers
- 1 October 2011
- journal article
- clinical trial
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Pain
- Vol. 152 (10), 2399-2404
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2011.07.005
Abstract
The 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.Keywords
This publication has 41 references indexed in Scilit:
- The measurement of pain in intensive care unit: Comparison of 5 self-report intensity scalesPain, 2010
- Comparing Quantification of Pain Severity by Verbal Rating and Numeric Rating ScalesThe Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine, 2010
- G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciencesBehavior Research Methods, 2007
- Pain After Spinal Cord Injury: An Evidence-based Review for Clinical Practice and Research*The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine, 2007
- The Numeric Rating Scale for Clinical Pain Measurement: A Ratio Measure?Pain Practice, 2003
- The Efficacy of Femoral Nerve Block in Pain Reduction for Outpatient Hamstring Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: A Double-Blind, Prospective, Randomized TrialArthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic & Related Surgery, 2000
- A Comparison of Pain Rating Scales by Sampling From Clinical Trial DataThe Clinical Journal of Pain, 2000
- Experimental induction of pain: Utility in the study of clinical painBehavior Therapy, 1995
- The faces pain scale for the self-assessment of the severity of pain experienced by children: Development, initial validation, and preliminary investigation for ratio scale propertiesPain, 1990
- Some Theorems on Quadratic Forms Applied in the Study of Analysis of Variance Problems, II. Effects of Inequality of Variance and of Correlation Between Errors in the Two-Way ClassificationThe Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 1954