Psychometric properties of different pain measuring scales in patients during perioperative period of lung resection

Abstract

Objective To investigate the psychometric properties by 4 pain measurement scales in assessment of perioperative patients undergoing lung resection during pain assessment in order to obtain the most appropriate evaluation scale for perioperative pain management. Methods A total of 410 lung resection patients admitted in Sichuan Cancer Hospital from October 2021 and April 2022 were recruited in this study. The 4 pain assessment scales commonly used in clinical practice, that is, Numeric Rating Scale (NRS, 0~10 points), Verbal Rating Scale (VRS), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and Faces Pain Scale-Revised (FPS-R), were used at the same time to evaluate their pain levels during the preoperative period, postoperative hospitalization (up to 6 d), and on the day of discharge. Spearman correlation analysis, independent samples t test and Cohen's d effect value were adopted to test the reliability and responsiveness of the 4 scales, and Chi-square test was performed to analyze the first-fill error rate of the different pain assessment methods. Results The correlation coefficients r between each measurement scale ranged from 0.468 to 0.851, and all of them were statistically significant (P 0.7, with NRS being most sensitive to pain changes (Cohen's d=0.80). NRS had the lowest first-time error rate (9.76%), while VAS had the highest (30.73%). Conclusion All 4 assessment scales have good reliability and responsiveness, but in assessing pain in perioperative patients undergoing pulmonary resection, NRS is the optional choice with the best overall results because of its lowest error rate, highest sensitivity, and good discriminability.

Keywords

• pain assessment
• psychometrics
• lung resection
• reliability
• validity