Background & Aims

Perceived stress is known to influence pain interference, and thus it may be an important consideration for clinicians involved with pain management. Assessment tools such as the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) have been created to objectify and track changes in stress levels. Although these instruments are sufficient in measuring stress and report favorable psychometric properties, are they truly necessary? Both PSS and PSQ tools are lengthy instruments, consisting of 14 and 30 items, respectively, with potential for a much longer real time completion than what is assumed. Spending valuable clinic time navigating lengthy measurement forms serves as a disadvantage to both the patient and the provider. Thus, there is a need for a rapid method of obtaining information on patient stress that may impact pain management.

Methods

This study is a secondary analysis of data from a study on factors that influence the interest in neuromodulation research among people with chronic pain of racial and ethnic minority groups (i.e., Black and Hispanic) in the USA. Participants completed the Protocol for Responding to and Assessing Patients’ Assets, Risks, and Experiences (PRAPARE), and the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) short forms for pain interference, depression, and anxiety. All questionnaires were distributed electronically. Spearman Rank Correlation was used to assess the relationships between PRAPARE question 17 (P17) “Stress is when someone feels tense, nervous, anxious, or can’t sleep at night because their mind is troubled. How stressed are you?” and PROMIS composite pain interference, depression, and anxiety T-scores. P17 was scored on a Likert scale from 0-4, with 0 representing “not at all” and 4 representing “very much.”

Results

P17 scores were not correlated to PROMIS depression and anxiety T-scores (p >.05). However, a strong positive correlation was seen between P17 and PROMIS pain interference T-scores (r=.743, p=.009).

Conclusions

The strength and significance of the relationship between P17 and PROMIS pain interference T-scores suggests that this question has the potential for providing a useful method for acquiring information on the contribution of stress to pain interference for patients with chronic pain. In addition, P17 was not significantly related to PROMIS depression and anxiety T-scores; thus, P17 likely provides unique and complementary information to these constructs that are known to influence pain interference. These findings suggest that P17 may provide a useful and more clinically friendly method for assessing stress in comparison to distributing lengthy multiple item questionnaires.

References

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Presenting Author

Gabriel Gonzalez

Poster Authors

Gabriel Gonzalez

PT

The University of Miami

Lead Author

E-mail

Topics

  • Specific Pain Conditions/Pain in Specific Populations: Nociplastic and chronic widespread pain

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