Development of a profile scoring system for assessing the psychosocial situation of patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain

Abstract

Chronic pain is a manifestation of interactions among physical, psychological, and social conditions, but the latter two, that is, the nonphysical correlates of chronic pain, are only rarely measured. This study aimed to develop a profile scoring system for assessing the psychosocial situation of patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. An expert panel chose social and psychological domains considered to be relevant to patients with chronic pain and wrote questions asking about each of those domains. The questionnaire was completed by 252 patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Factor analysis was used to select questionnaire items for each domain. Associations and interactions of pain severity and each domain score with pain-related quality of life (PRQOL) were examined using linear regression models. Five domains were chosen: work, family, sleep, mental health, and PRQOL. Then, a total of 17 questions were created for the work, family, and sleep domains. Using the likelihood-ratio test, we found significant interactions with PRQOL in four pairs: severity–family, severity–mental, family–sleep, and work–mental. The association between pain severity and PRQOL was related to each patient’s social and psychological situation. These results suggest that interventions for patients with chronic pain may be personalized to account for each individual’s psychosocial situation.

Keywords:

• chronic musculoskeletal pain
• psychosocial factors
• family and work environment
• pain-related quality of life
• profile scoring system

Acknowledgments

Members of the profile scoring system for psychosocial situation of chronic musculoskeletal pain study group are listed here. Chairman: Shin-ichi Konno (Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine). Research members: Shin-ichi Konno, Shoji Yabuki, Miho Sekiguchi, Takuya Nikaido (Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine); Jiro Kurata (Department of Anesthesiology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University School of Medicine); Yoshitetsu Oshiro (Himeji Ishikawa Functional Brain Imaging Laboratory); Shigeru Saito (Department of Anesthesiology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine); Sei Fukui (Pain Management Clinic, Department of Anesthesiology, Shiga University of Medical Science Hospital); Seiji Ohtori (Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University); Makoto Nishihara (Department of Integrative Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences); Tsuneo Takebayashi (Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine); Mamoru Kawakami (Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Wakayama Medical University Kihoku Hospital, Wakayama); Mitsuo Ochi (Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University); Katsushi Takeshita (Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, the University of Tokyo); Morio Matsumoto (Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Keio University School of Medicine); Masahiko Sumitani (Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Relief Center, the University of Tokyo). Research associate members: Hiroshi Kawaguchi (Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, the University of Tokyo); Nobuo Adachi, Takeshi Hiramatsu (Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University); Yuichi Ogino (Department of Anesthesiology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine). This manuscript was supported by the Health Labour and Science Research Grant for research on chronic pain.

Author contributions

All authors made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; took part in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; gave final approval of the version to be published; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work. Panel members of the research groups listed in Acknowledgments section contributed to developing the risk profile system.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.