• Antonio I Cuesta-Vargas, Randy Neblett, Alessandro Chiarotto, Jeroen Kregel, Jo Nijs, C Paul van Wilgen, Laurent Pitance, Aleksandar Knezevic, Robert J Gatchel, Tom G Mayer, Carlotta Viti, Cristina Roldan-Jiménez, Marco Testa, Wolnei Caumo, Milica Jeremic-Knezevic, and Juan V Luciano.
• Department of Physiotherapy of the Faculty of Health Science at the University of Malaga, IBIMA, Málaga, Spain; Faculty of Health at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Electronic address: acuesta@uma.es.
• J Pain. 2018 Mar 1; 19 (3): 317-329.

AbstractCentral sensitization (CS) involves the amplification of neural signaling within the central nervous system, which evokes pain hypersensitivity. The Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI) assesses 25 overlapping health-related symptom dimensions that have been reported to be associated with CS-related disorders. Previous studies have reported satisfactory test-retest reliability and internal consistency, but factor analyses have exhibited conflicting results in different language versions. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to thoroughly examine the dimensionality and reliability of the CSI, with pooled data from 1,987 individuals, collected in several countries. The principal component analysis suggested that 1 general factor of CS best described the structure. A subsequent confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a bifactor model, which accounted for the covariance among CSI items, with regard to 1 general factor and 4 orthogonal factors, fit the CSI structure better than the unidimensional and the 4-factor models. Additional analyses indicated substantial reliability for the general factor (ie, Cronbach α = .92; ω = .95; and ω hierarchical = .89). Reliability results for the 4 specific factors were considered too low to be used for subscales. The results of this study clearly suggest that only total CSI scores should be used and reported.Copyright © 2017 The American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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