Developing and assessing the measurement properties of an instrument to assess the impact of musculoskeletal pain in children aged 9 to 12-the pediatric musculoskeletal pain impact summary score

Priscilla Viana da Silva; Steven J Kamper; Alix Hall; Tie P Yamato; Lise Hestbaek; Henrik H Lauridsen; Christopher M Williams

doi:10.1016/j.bjpt.2024.101052

Developing and assessing the measurement properties of an instrument to assess the impact of musculoskeletal pain in children aged 9 to 12-the pediatric musculoskeletal pain impact summary score

Braz J Phys Ther. 2024 Mar 23;28(2):101052. doi: 10.1016/j.bjpt.2024.101052. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Priscilla Viana da Silva¹, Steven J Kamper², Alix Hall³, Tie P Yamato⁴, Lise Hestbaek⁵, Henrik H Lauridsen⁶, Christopher M Williams⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine and Public Health, The University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia; Hunter New England Population Health, NSW, Australia; Hunter Medical Research Institute, School of Medicine and Public Health University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: Priscilla.VianaDaSilva@uon.edu.au.
² Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District, NSW, Australia; School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
³ School of Medicine and Public Health, The University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia; Hunter New England Population Health, NSW, Australia; Hunter Medical Research Institute, School of Medicine and Public Health University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia; Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour, NSW, Australia.
⁴ Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District, NSW, Australia; School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia; Masters and Doctoral Programs in Physical Therapy, Universidade Cidade de São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
⁵ Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark; The Chiropractic Knowledge Hub, Odense, Denmark.
⁶ Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
⁷ School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia; Research and Knowledge Translation Directorate Mid North Coast Local Health District, NSW, Australia.

Abstract

Background: Despite the high prevalence of musculoskeletal (MSK) pain in children, there is a lack of instruments to measure the impact of MSK pain on children's activity and participation.

Objective: To assess the reliability and construct validity of the Pediatric MSK Pain Impact summary score in school children (aged 9 to 12) with MSK pain.

Methods: We used a pragmatic approach in a reflective framework to assess internal consistency, structural validity, convergent validity, and discriminative validity in a sample of 615 children with MSK pain.

Results: The confirmatory factor analysis results indicate that the summary score has limited internal consistency and construct validity. The estimated Cronbach's alpha was 0.63, and most goodness of fit indices met the recommended thresholds (SRMR = 0.030; GFI = 0.993, CFI = 0.955, RMSEA 0.073), although they were close to the lower bounds of the thresholds. The convergent validity showed appropriate correlation of the summary score with quality of life (r = -0.33), care-seeking (r = 0.45), and medication intake (r = 0.37). Discriminative validity showed that the instrument can discriminate between the impact of pain on children with frequent and infrequent (2.93; 95% CI: 2.36 - 3.50) MSK pain.

Conclusion: The Pediatric MSK Pain Impact summary showed limited internal consistency and construct validity; however, it can discriminate between children with frequent and infrequent pain. The results are promising for clinical and research practices as it is a short and convenient tool to be used in school-aged children.

Keywords: Children; MSK pain; Pain impact; Patient-reported outcome measures; School-aged.