Overview of tools used for pain measurement in the identified systems
| System focus | Reference | Measure(s) used to capture pain reports from a patient |
|---|---|---|
| Pain | 30 | Computerised extension of the MPQ |
| 21 | Areas of pain and no pain were digitised into a summation image of a female torso, with blackened areas indicating pain areas and white indicating no pain | |
| 33 | A pain diary form consisting of a VAS (0–100 mm) for pain intensity and boxes for the number of consumed extra doses of analgesics | |
| 34 | Not described in paper | |
| 35 | The pain diary included a unidimensional tool for assessment of pain intensity using a 100 mm VAS where the scale was anchored by the words ‘No pain’ (VAS 0 mm) and ‘Severe pain’ (VAS 100 mm). It also included a question about consumed extra doses of analgesics | |
| 38 | Computerised extension of the MPQ and 16 additional items: two items related to the body outline, three 0–10 items related to current pain, least pain and worst pain intensity, three items measuring goals for pain levels and amount of time pain greater than tolerable level, one item measuring patient satisfaction with pain level, and one item addressing a range of concepts (expectations about the pain, effectiveness of previous pain treatments, pain medication treatment pattern, non-drug treatments used for pain, tendency to tell or not tell others about the pain, onset of pain and beliefs about the cause of the pain) | |
| Pain and depression | 18 | 7 core items, 2 items from PHQ-9, average pain from BPI, single items about global improvement, medication adherence, side effects and whether a call from a nurse was required. Additional BPI questions were included for patients with pain, and additional PHQ-9 questions for those with depression |
| 19 | As above | |
| 17 | As above | |
| Quality-of-life | 26 | 86 items, reflecting common cancer-related and treatment-related symptoms, including pain |
| 27 | An 11-point (0–10) pain-intensity numerical scale as an additional item | |
| 23 | Not described in paper | |
| 16 | MDASI, a brief, validated measure of 13 common cancer-related symptoms over the previous 24 h. Each symptom is rated on an 11-point scale, with 0 being ‘not present’ and 10 being ‘as bad as you can imagine’ | |
| 25 | ESAS to be completed daily and the EQ-5D weekly | |
| 24 | Symptom-specific questions, including an 11-point scale for reporting pain level | |
| 20 | QOL assessment EORTC QLQ-C30 and the EORTC BN20 | |
| 28 | EORTC QLQ-C30 | |
| 29 | Intensity of symptoms (pain, fatigue, nausea, anxiety, depression and drowsiness) rated using a 0 to 100 VAS | |
| 5 | ESAS, EORTC QLQ-C30, screening item about pain intensity at its worst in the last 24 h (taken from BPI), 15 items on physical function, PHQ-9, two questions from the SGA, five questions related to need for assistance, patients’ opinions on time expenditure and preferences for computerised vs paper and pencil-based assessment, and a computerised pain body map. | |
| 31 | Visual display of relevant information from multiple sources can be captured including PRO assessments, patient history and notes | |
| 32 | Aches and pain captured as part of C-SAS | |
| 36 | A patient-reported symptom severity screening scale that generates a real-time, point-of-care report. Contains 38 items that produce scores for individual patient-reported problems | |
| 22 | As above | |
| 37 | An electronic version of the 1970 edition of the MPQ, a pain barriers questionnaire and the SCFS-6 |
BPI, Brief Pain Inventory; C-SAS, Chemotherapy Symptom Assessment Scale; EORTC BN20, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer brain cancer module; EORTC QLQ-C30, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality-of-Life Questionnaire; EQ-5D, EuroQol European Quality-of-Life-5 Dimensions; ESAS, Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale; MDASI, M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory; MPQ, McGill Pain Questionnaire; PHQ9, Brief Patient Health Questionnaire for depression; PRO, patient-reported outcome; SCFS-6, Schwartz cancer fatigue scale; SGA, Subjective Global Assessment of Nutritional Intake; VAS, Visual analogue scale.