Psychometric Evaluation of the Revised American Pain Society Patient Outcome Questionnaire (APS-POQ-R) in Postoperative Patients

Background: Poor postoperative pain management has posed a pervasive clinical problem to professionals in medical practice. The effective measurement of pain management outcome is one of the essential parts to improve the pain management quality. The Revised American PainSocietyPatientOutcomeQuestionnaire�(APS-POQ-R)�fullyreflectsthepainmanagementquality,�whileitsreliabilityandvalidityhasnot� beenverifiedintheoperation. Objectives:�ToverifythereliabilityandvalidityofAPS-POQ-Rinpostoperativepatientsandtodiscusstherelationshipbetweenpain� degree and other outcomes of pain management. Methods:�Torandomlyselect�244�hospitalizedadultpatientsof�5�surgicaldepartmentsinahospitalinNorthCarolina,�US.�Tomeasurethe� painmanagementresultofthepatientswiththeuseofAPS-POQ-Rinthefirstpostoperativedayandtheaveragepaindegreeinpostoperative� 24 hours respectively. Meanwhile, it needs to get the general demographic information and surgical information of the patients by the means of checking the cases or the patients' self-reports. Results:�Thetotalinternalconsistencyofthequestionnaire�(Cronbach'salpha)�is�0.770.�Factoranalysistestifiesthefivesubscalesofthe� original chart: effects of pain on the sleep, effects of pain on emotions, adverse effects of pain treatment, effects of pain on activities and the perception of pain service, accounting for 61.41% of the total variation. The total internal consistency in the perception of pain service is much low (0.510), which probably related with the sample homogeneity; the total internal consistency of other dimensions is 0.647-0.797. According to the regression analysis, the average and largest pain degree could explain effects of pain on activities is 18.6 of the variation, the percentage of time and average pain degree in severe pain respectively explain 28.9% and 16.8% of the variation of pain on sleep and emotions. The 17.9% variation of patients' satisfaction with pain treatment can be predicted by pain relief degree and the lightest pain degree. Conclusions:�ThisstudytestifiedthereliabilityandvalidityofAPS-POQ-Rinthepatients,�whichshowsthatitisfeasibletoapply� APS-POQ-Rtomeasurepatientoutcomesinpainmanagementforinternalconsistency.�Theitems�(thelightest,�heaviestpaindegreeandthe� percentage of time in severe pain) of pain degree are the important predicted factors in other pain management outcomes. As for the effects of