A Study of the Reliability and Concurrent Validity of the Chinese Version of the Pain Medication Attitude Questionnaire (ChPMAQ) in a Sample of Chinese Patients with Chronic Pain

Objectives. The Pain Medication Attitude Questionnaire (PMAQ) was designed to assess concerns about pain medication among patients with chronic nonmalignant pain. The instrument has been demonstrated to be a reliable measure with good psychometric properties, yet its validity among Chinese has not been evaluated. This study aimed to translate the English-language version of the PMAQ into Chinese (ChPMAQ) and to evaluate its reliability and concurrent validity. Methods. A total of 201 Chinese patients with chronic pain attending two multidisciplinary pain clinics in Hong Kong completed the ChPMAQ, the Chronic Pain Grade (CPG) questionnaire, the mental health subscale of the SF-12 (QoL-Mental), and questions assessing sociodemographic and pain characteristics. Results. Our results showed that the seven ChPMAQ scales possessed good internal consistency. Except for the correlation between Withdrawal and Mistrust ( r  = 0.13), all ChPMAQ scales were significantly correlated with each other (all p  < 0.01). The scales also correlated with two concurrent criterion measures, QoL-Mental and Pain Disability, in a predictable direction. Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that the ChPMAQ scales predicted concurrent QoL-Mental ( F (7,190) = 2.75, p  < 0.05) and pain disability ( F (7,188) = 3.00, p  < 0.01). Need (std β  = –0.23, p <0.05) and Side effects (std β  = 0.27, p  < 0.01) emerged as independent predictors of concurrent QoL-Mental and pain disability, respectively. Conclusion. Despite the current preliminary findings for the reliability and concurrent validity of the ChPMAQ, more research is needed to substantiate the reliability, validity and other psychometric properties of the instrument.