Background: Subjective well-being is an essential ingredient in the quality
of life concept. The Marburg questionnaire, a seven item scale for the ass
essment of the trait dimension of well-being, claims to possess good psycho
metric properties. This is investigated in two studies with chronic pain pa
tients. Methods: The first study utilizing a prospective, randomized, and c
ontrolled design, served to find out the effects of a pain management progr
am. Included were 236 patients with a diagnosis of chronic low back pain (T
oronto classification) or tension type headache (IHS classification). Study
2 employed a cross-sectional design and relied on the data of 186 patients
mainly with pain in the back and the head who had filled in a pain questio
nnaire provided by the Schmerz-therapeutisches Kolloquium,a German pain soc
iety.
Results: Across the studies, internal consistency of the scale with Cronbac
h's alpha = 0.91 proofed to be very satisfactory; retest-reliability after
an interval of eight weeks came up to r(tt) = 0.81. The scale is one dimens
ional and demonstrates good replicability of the dimensional structure. The
factor accounts for 65% of the variance of the test scores. Moreover,the s
cale is sensitive to change, and, therefore, can be used as an assessment t
ool in interventions that aim at an improvement of well-being. Interrelatio
ns with variables indicating chronicity support the concept of construct va
lidity. This refers to the stage algorithm provided by the pain clinic in M
ainz, to the affective dimension of the pain experience,to disability, depr
ession, and inability to work.
Conclusion:The good psychometric quality of the questionnaire along with it
s brevity allows its application as part of a quality of life assessment.