A cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire-2: Chinese version in patients with chronic visceral pain

Abstract

Objective

The present study aimed to develop a culturally appropriate and functional Standard Mandarin Chinese translation of the short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire-2 (SF-MPQ-2) and to assess its reliability and validity for characterizing chronic visceral pain in Chinese patients.

Background

The SF-MPQ-2 has been widely used in studies of pain epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment, and even pathophysiologic mechanisms to assess the major symptoms of clinical pain. Previous reports have shown favorable reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the SF-MPQ-2 in diverse samples of patients with chronic and acute pain. However, a culturally appropriate, functional Chinese version of the scale has never been developed.

Methods

Beaton’s guidelines were used for the translation and back-translation procedures. Patients (n=145) with chronic visceral pain were recruited to complete the Standard Mandarin Chinese version of the SF-MPQ-2 (SF-MPQ-2-CN), of which 41 were asked to complete the SF-MPQ-2-CN a second time, 3 days after the initial visit. The test–retest reliability was quantified using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to assess internal consistency. Possible components were determined by exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation, and a value of 0.4 was considered requisite for the loading of each factor.

Results

The ICC for subscales ranged from 0.909 to 0.952, and that of the total scale was 0.927, suggesting excellent reliability and validity of the SF-MPQ-2-CN. Cronbach’s alpha for subscales ranged from 0.896 to 0.916, and that of the total scale was 0.836 and 0.831 for primary and secondary visits, respectively. The factor loading matrix of the SF-MPQ-2-CN ranged from 0.734 to 0.901 for each of the following subscales: continuous, intermittent, neuropathic, and affective, revealing four components similar to the original scale.

Conclusion

The reliability and validity of the SF-MPQ-2-CN scale are statistically acceptable for the evaluation of Chinese patients with chronic visceral pain.

Keywords:

• chronic visceral pain
• Chinese version of short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire-2
• exploratory factor analysis
• reliability
• validity

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Geriatric Hospital of Hebei Province, Bethune International Peace Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and data collectors for their support and to all respondents for their participation in the study. This work was supported by the National Key Technology R&D Program (2013BAI04B04) and the Twelfth Five-Year Project (AWS12J004) to JC.

Author contributions

W-JZ, J-LW, D-HT, and JC were involved in study design and research instrument development. W-JZ and J-LW were involved in data analysis and wrote the manuscript. SZ and MG were involved in data collection and data scrubbing. All authors contributed toward data analysis, drafting and revising the paper and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.