How Should We Assess Pain: Do Patients Prefer a Quantitative or Qualitative Scale? A Study of Patient Preferences.


Journal

The American journal of hospice & palliative care
ISSN: 1938-2715
Titre abrégé: Am J Hosp Palliat Care
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 9008229

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
Apr 2021
Historique:
pubmed: 29 7 2020
medline: 29 7 2021
entrez: 29 7 2020
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

Pain perception is a subjective experience and is influenced by a variety of factors. Pain assessment tools, included the numeric pain rating scale (NRS) and the visual analog scale (VAS). A VAS qualitative (VASQ) scale asks patients their current pain level along a continuum of "Good Day," "Average Day," or "Bad Day." We had patients complete both scales and asked them their preference and reason for their choice. We identified patients 18 years of age and older, seen by Palliative medicine at Geisinger, who had cancer-associated pain of at least one-month duration. Patients filled out the study questionnaire composed of 2 questions. Characteristics of patients who preferred the VASQ were compared to those who preferred the NRS using a 2-sample One hundred forty-six patients completed the questionnaire, 52.1% were female; 63.7% preferred the NRS, 31.5% preferred the VASQ. Patients who preferred the NRS reported a higher NRS rating than patients who preferred the VASQ (mean NRS rating of 6.0 compared to 5.3) but the difference was not statistically significant ( Patients preferred the NRS over VASQ for pain assessment. Patients tend to rate their pain at a higher level when using NRS compared to VASQ.

Sections du résumé

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND
Pain perception is a subjective experience and is influenced by a variety of factors. Pain assessment tools, included the numeric pain rating scale (NRS) and the visual analog scale (VAS). A VAS qualitative (VASQ) scale asks patients their current pain level along a continuum of "Good Day," "Average Day," or "Bad Day." We had patients complete both scales and asked them their preference and reason for their choice.
METHODS METHODS
We identified patients 18 years of age and older, seen by Palliative medicine at Geisinger, who had cancer-associated pain of at least one-month duration. Patients filled out the study questionnaire composed of 2 questions. Characteristics of patients who preferred the VASQ were compared to those who preferred the NRS using a 2-sample
RESULTS RESULTS
One hundred forty-six patients completed the questionnaire, 52.1% were female; 63.7% preferred the NRS, 31.5% preferred the VASQ. Patients who preferred the NRS reported a higher NRS rating than patients who preferred the VASQ (mean NRS rating of 6.0 compared to 5.3) but the difference was not statistically significant (
CONCLUSION CONCLUSIONS
Patients preferred the NRS over VASQ for pain assessment. Patients tend to rate their pain at a higher level when using NRS compared to VASQ.

Identifiants

pubmed: 32720804
doi: 10.1177/1049909120945599
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

383-390

Auteurs

Shagufta Firdous (S)

Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA, USA.

Andrea Berger (A)

Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA, USA.

Waqas Jehangir (W)

Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA, USA.

Carlos Fernandez (C)

Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA, USA.

Bertrand Behm (B)

Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA, USA.

Zankhana Y Mehta (ZY)

Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA, USA.

Akhila Reddy (A)

MD Anderson Cancer Institute, Houston, TX, USA.

Mellar Davis (M)

Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA, USA.

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Classifications MeSH