• John T Chibnall and Raymond C Tait.
• Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
• Pain Med. 2022 May 4; 23 (5): 887-894.

AbstractMeasures are lacking that assess the clinical burden that healthcare providers perceive in treating chronic conditions. This study presents a preliminary psychometric evaluation of a novel self-report measure of provider burden in the treatment of chronic pain. Data for eight burden items were available from vignette studies examining the effects of patient pain severity and medical evidence on clinical burden and judgments for chronic pain. Participants (N = 922) were 109 physicians and 813 non-physicians, all acting in the role of physician (232 community members without chronic pain, 105 community members with chronic pain, and 476 American Chronic Pain Association members with chronic pain). Factor analyses of burden items yielded one-factor solutions in all samples, with high factor loadings and adequate explained variance. Internal consistency reliability was uniformly high (≥ 0.87). Burden scores were significantly higher among physicians compared to nonphysicians; nonphysician groups did not differ on any burden score. Significant correlations of burden score with indicators of psychosocial complications in patient care supported scale validity. Burden score was not associated with gender, age, or education. Results provide initial support for the psychometric properties of a Healthcare Provider Burden Scale (HPBS). Research utilizing larger and representative healthcare provider groups is needed.© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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