The use of the McGill Pain Questionnaire in assessing arthritis pain

Abstract

Responses to the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) were described in two samples of arthritis patients, an inpatient group (n = 94) and an outpatient group (n = 94). Subjects in both samples used a similar set of sensory words to describe their arthritis pain. The inpatient sample, however, used affective words of higher intensity than the outpatient sample. Because the two samples came from a common population, they were combined and exploratory factor analyses using principal component analysis with first oblique and then orthogonal rotations were performed. The analysis yielded 6 factors that accounted for 58.3% of the variance in the sample. Clear sensory factors, an affective factor and an evaluative factor were identified. The study provides preliminary evidence that a substantial affective dimension underlies the MPQ responses of arthritis patients and confirms the parsimony of a 3-factor solution for the questionnaire.