• Jacob C Hølen, Ingvild Saltvedt, Peter M Fayers, Marit Bjørnnes, Guri Stenseth, Bjørn Hval, Marilène Filbet, Jon Håvard Loge, and Stein Kaasa.
• Pain and Palliation Research Group, Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7006 Trondheim, Norway. jacob.chr.holen@medisin.ntnu.no
• Palliat Med. 2005 Jul 1;19(5):411-7.

BackgroundPain assessment is challenging in cognitively impaired (CI) patients due to inadequate self-report skills and observational ratings are an alternative. The Doloplus-2 is developed for pain assessment in the CI and rates somatic, psychomotor and psychosocial behaviours as indicators of pain.AimsTo translate the Doloplus-2 into Norwegian, to test the Doloplus-2 with regard to criterion validity and to obtain the administrators' evaluation of the clinical performance of the Doloplus-2.MethodsNurses at three nursing homes, in collaboration with two research assistants, administered the Doloplus-2 to 59 patients with dementia. The results were compared against experienced clinicians' pain ratings. Regression analyses were performed to explore each different item's contribution to the total pain score. The administrators also completed a debriefing questionnaire.ResultsThe instrument was translated according to international guidelines. Regression analyses demonstrate that the Doloplus-2 score accounts for 62% (R2) of the expert score and that the four most informative items could explain 68% of the expert score. Analyses of the different Doloplus-2 items indicate that facial expressions explain most and social life least of the expert's pain ratings. The administrators reported that Doloplus-2 was helpful and easy to administer, but questioned the validity of the psychosocial domain.ConclusionsThe Norwegian Doloplus-2 demonstrates satisfactory criterion validity and clinical value in this pilot study. However, the content of the instrument needs a general re-evaluation, especially with regard to the psychosocial items.

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