• Shannon M Nugent, Travis I Lovejoy, Sarah Shull, Steven K Dobscha, and Benjamin J Morasco.
• Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care, VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, Oregon.
• Pain Med. 2021 Oct 8; 22 (10): 2235-2241.

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which numeric rating scale (NRS) scores collected during usual care are associated with more robust and validated measures of pain, disability, mental health, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL).DesignWe conducted a secondary analysis of data from a prospective cohort study.SubjectsWe included 186 patients with musculoskeletal pain who were prescribed long-term opioid therapy.SettingVA Portland Health Care System outpatient clinic.MethodsAll patients had been screened with the 0-10 NRS during routine outpatient visits. They also completed research visits that assessed pain, mental health and HRQOL every 6 months for 2 years. Accounting for nonindependence of repeated measures data, we examined associations of NRS data obtained from the medical record with scores on standardized measures of pain and its related outcomes.ResultsNRS scores obtained in clinical practice were moderately associated with pain intensity scores (B's = 0.53-0.59) and modestly associated with pain disability scores (B's = 0.33-0.36) obtained by researchers. Associations between pain NRS scores and validated measures of depression, anxiety, and health related HRQOL were low (B's = 0.09-0.26, with the preponderance of B's < .20).ConclusionsStandardized assessments of pain during usual care are moderately associated with research-administered measures of pain intensity and would be improved from the inclusion of more robust measures of pain-related function, mental health, and HRQOL.Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.

12 keywords...

hide…