The development and validation of a Greek version of the short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire

Background: The short form of the McGill Pain Questionnaire (SFMPQ) is a widely used instrument for assessing the quality of pain where use of the full form is not possible. To date however, this instrument has not been translated into the Greek language. Aims: It is the aim of this study to validate an adopted Greek version of the short form of the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Methods: A systematic translation procedure was followed before development of the final version. Sixty spinal and osteoarthritis chronic musculoskeletal pain patients completed the questionnaire. A large percentage of the subjects (43%) was of elementary educational level. Results: The analysis of the results indicated that an internally consistent (Cronbach's α=0.71) and content valid (all 15 descriptors were used at least by the 33% of the subjects) instrument has been developed. It has been shown to be suitable, easy to understand and administer for this sample of chronic musculoskeletal patients. Conclusions: A Greek version of the SFMPQ (the GR-SFMPQ) has been constructed which has the properties of internal validity and consistency. It is easy to administer, easy to understand even for an elementary educational level and it is capable of describing multidimensionally the pain experience of chronic musculo-skeletal pain patients. (C) 2000 European Federation of Chapters of the International Association for the Study of Pain.