Chronic pain assessment: A seven-factor model

BACKGROUND: There are many measures assessing related dimensions of the chronic pain experience (eg, pain severity, pain coping, depression, activity level), but the relationships among them have not been systematically established. OBJECTIVE: The present study set out to determine the core dimensions requiring assessment in individuals with chronic pain. METHODS: Individuals with chronic pain (n = 126) completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Hopelessness Scale, Chronic Pain Coping Index, Multidimensional Pain Inventory, Pain Catastrophizing Scale, McGill Pain Questionnaire - Short Form, Pain Disability Index and the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia. RESULTS: Before an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the nine chronic pain measures, EFAs were conducted on each of the individual measures, and the derived factors (subscales) from each measure were submitted together for a single EFA. A seven-factor model best fit the data, representing the core factors of pain and disability, pain description, affective distress, support, positive coping strategies, negative coping strategies and activity. CONCLUSIONS: Seven meaningful dimensions of the pain experience were reliably and systematically extracted. Implications and future directions for this work are discussed.