The European Portuguese adaptation of the Fear of Pain Questionnaire

Susana Cardoso; Daniel Esculpi; Ana Rita Carvalho; Diana R Pereira; Sandra Torres; Francisco Mercado; Fernando Barbosa

doi:10.1016/j.rbr.2015.10.006

The European Portuguese adaptation of the Fear of Pain Questionnaire

Rev Bras Reumatol. 2016 Feb 17:S0482-5004(16)00025-5. doi: 10.1016/j.rbr.2015.10.006. Online ahead of print.

[Article in English, Portuguese]

Authors

Susana Cardoso¹, Daniel Esculpi², Ana Rita Carvalho³, Diana R Pereira⁴, Sandra Torres², Francisco Mercado⁵, Fernando Barbosa³

Affiliations

¹ Laboratório de Neuropsicofisiologia, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal; Centro de Psicologia, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal; Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Espanha. Electronic address: susanacardoso2004@yahoo.es.
² Centro de Psicologia, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
³ Laboratório de Neuropsicofisiologia, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
⁴ Laboratório de Neuropsicofisiologia - CIPsi, Escola de Psicologia, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal.
⁵ Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Espanha.

PMID: 26947178
DOI: 10.1016/j.rbr.2015.10.006

Abstract

In Portugal, it is estimated that chronic pain affects 36.7% of the population, constituting a multifactorial phenomenon with great impact on individual, family, community, and social levels. In the fear-avoidance model of pain, one of the most consistent consensus in the literature, the fear arises as one of the variables that can contribute to the development and maintenance of this condition. Thus, instruments for evaluating the fear of pain, as Fear of Pain Questionnaire (FPQ-III), may be useful in the conceptualization of the subjective experience of pain. Accordingly, this paper aims to describe the adaptation of FPQ-III to the European Portuguese idiom. A total of 1,094 participants (795 female; mean age=25.16, SD=7.72 years old) completed the web based questionnaire. The results point to a different factor model found in the first study of the original scale (five factors: minor pain, severe pain, medical pain, injection pain, and afflicted pain), good internal consistency (0.75 to 0.85) and good correlations (between 0.30 and 0.59) between subscales and (between 0.68 e 0.85) for the total score and subscales. Given the need to meet the various dimensions of the subjective experience of pain, the Fear of Pain Questionnaire is assumed as a useful tool that, in combination with other tools, may contribute to the evaluation and intervention procedures progressively more comprehensive and adjusted to the challenges raised with the issue of chronic pain.

Keywords: Ansiedade; Anxiety; Avaliação da dor; Chronic pain; Dor crônica; Fear; Medo; Pain assessment.