• Kate M Dunn, Paul Campbell, and Kelvin P Jordan.
• Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre, Research Institute for Primary Care & Health Sciences, Keele University, United Kingdom. Electronic address: k.m.dunn@keele.ac.uk.
• J Pain. 2017 Dec 1; 18 (12): 1451-1458.

AbstractResearchers have identified trajectories of pain derived using statistical techniques on longitudinal data. These trajectories have potential to be of use clinically but the repeated data collection required is currently impractical for such situations. Our aim was to investigate the validity of a self-report (Visual Trajectories Questionnaire-Pain) for pain. Analysis included participants from 2 prospective cohorts of people seeking primary health care for back pain (n = 622). A question was developed asking people to classify their pain experience into one of a number of trajectories using visual and word descriptions. Overall 98% of participants completed the question; criterion validity was established by comparing self-report trajectories and trajectories derived using longitudinal latent class analysis, and construct validity was established by comparing responses to the questionnaire against an existing model of back pain stages. As expected variables such as pain intensity and widespreadness, other symptoms, and psychological distress showed an increasing trend of severity across trajectory categories in line with the hypothesized model. In conclusion, the self-report single-item Visual Trajectories Questionnaire-Pain is acceptable to patients and supported by evidence of face, criterion, and construct validity. Further research is needed to investigate the clinical usefulness of the question.Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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