MCGILL PAIN QUESTIONNAIRE TRANSLATED INTO DANISH - EXPERIMENTAL AND CLINICAL FINDINGS

Objective: To develop a methodology for translating the McGill Pain Qu estionnaire (MPQ) into a Danish version, and to make comparisons to st udies of patients speaking other languages. Design: Finding suitable D anish adjectives using the same methodology as that in the original MP Q. Comparison of Danish descriptors to the words in the English versio n of MPQ. Survey in healthy subjects and patients with rheumatoid arth ritis (RA) and fibromyalgia (F). Setting: The general public and hospi tal outpatients. Patients: A random sample of 186 healthy volunteers, 20 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 41 patients with fibromyalgi a. Main Outcome Measures: Danish words translated as closely as possib le to the descriptors in the original McGill Pain Questionnaire. A pai n-assessment instrument making international pain description possible . Results: A Danish version of the McGill Pain Questionnaire was devel oped with scale values of Danish descriptors not differing more than 5 x SEM from the 'patient' words in the English version. The subdivisio n into classes and subclasses was respected. In the reliability experi ment, the same rank values were found in 85% of subclasses. In a study using two experimental pain stimulus intensities, seven of 10 subject s obtained higher MPQ scores following the high-intensity stimulus. In the clinical study, the pain profiles of patients with RA and F in En glish, Italian, and Danish patients were almost the same. Conclusion: The present methodology of translating the McGill Pain Questionnaire p ermits comparison of studies from English-speaking and non-English-spe aking populations, thus facilitating international research exchange.