Validation of the brief pain inventory in a Taiwanese population

Assessment of pain in cancer patients is very important to all health care professionals. This paper describes the development of a Taiwanese version of the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI-T) and discusses its psychometric properti es in Taiwan. The BBI-T was developed from the original BPI using back-tran slation and committee review. A total of 534 cytologically or pathologicall y diagnosed cancer patients in three medical centers in Taiwan were intervi ewed between July 1992 and October 1997. The intraclass correlation coeffic ient for the test-retest reliability was 0.79 for the pain severity scale a nd 0.81 for the pain interference scale. The explained variance for the wit hin-scale factor analyses was larger than 60% in both scales. The coefficie nt alpha for the internal reliability was 0.81 for the severity scale and 0 .89 for the interference scale. Confirmatory factor analysis of the BPI-T c learly identified the same two scales (severity and interference scales) in the 299 adult patients (age between 20-64) with high education (education years > 9) or patients at an early stage of disease. However, in the 235 no nadult patients with distant metastasis or lour education patients with dis tant metastasis, the "most severe pain" item loaded malt to the interferenc e scale than the severity scale. Convergent validity of the pain severity w as demonstrated by significant correlations with stage of disease (National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program [SE ER]), performance status (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group [ECOG]), and p ain interference. In conclusion, interviewer-administered BPI-T was a relia ble instrument for cancer pain severity and its interference in Taiwan. Add itionally, it was a valid instrument on adult cancer patients with high edu cation or patients at an early stage of disease. J Pain Symptom Manage 1999 ;15:316-322. (C) U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee, 1999.