A review of the current status of measurement of the impact of adolescent chronic pain: Abstracts for poster presentation

Chronic pain has widespread deleterious effect on the lives of adolescents and their parents, affecting physical, psychological social and familial functioning. Measurement of these effects is an important clinical and scientific starting point for both research and clinical practice. This study reports on two reviews of existing measures for adolescents with chronic pain and their parents, in addition to the development and use of two multidimensional measures designed for use with these particular populations. Separate systematic literature searches were conducted to identify measures used specifically to assess functioning of adolescents with chronic pain and their parents. The adolescent review identified a total of 43 measures used with adolescents, whilst the parent review identified a total of 68 measures used with parents of adolescents with chronic pain. Further examination revealed a dearth of measures designed specifically for adolescents with chronic pain (n=12) and their parents (n=7), in addition to sporadic psychometric evaluation in these populations. As a result of the findings of these systematic measurement reviews, two multidimensional measures were developed for use specifically with adolescents with chronic pain (Bath Adolescent Pain Questionnaire; BAPQ) and their parents (Bath Adolescent Pain textendash Parental Impact Questionnaire). Evaluation of the BAPQ and BAP-PIQ in populations comprising adolescents with chronic pain and parents of adolescents with chronic pain, respectively, revealed psychometrically robust, multidimensional assessment tools. This study reports in detail on these completed measures with regard to guidelines for usage, use of normative data, critique of their strengths and weaknesses and discussion of how these measures can enhance assessment in a clinical setting. This study was grant supported by the BUPA Foundation and the Health Foundation.