Study of Pain in Cancer Patients : Development of a Measurement Scale based on Qualitative Evaluation

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The purpose of this study is to develop a measurement based on qualitative evaluation. we are concerned about a pain of cancer patients as the subjective experiences of the individuals.In the first phase, we evaluated the reliability and the validity of the McGill pain Questionnaire(MPQ), which was devised as a pain measurement scale focusing on verbal expressions of pain. The results indicated that the category of affective pain description in MPQ did not have enough of the emotional verbal expressions on expressing various internal experience by cancer patients and also we felt that the results of MPQ lost some it's validity through clutural and language differences.In the second phase, we developed the pain scale of cancer patiens. We first examined the qualitative aspect of cancer pain and divided cancer pain into three categories such as the sensory pain, the emotional pain and the pain related to difficulty in the activities of daily living. This qualitative inventory consisted of 84 pain description words. Next we examined the quantitative aspect of cancer pain and divided it into 5 aspects such as intensity, frequency, extent, duration, and depth. This quantitative inventory was made on a numerical 5-point scale.In the third phase, we checked the reliability and the validity of this developed pain questionnaire. The subjects were 121 cancer patients and 68 post operative patients. We identified the statistical reliability high enough by analyzing the data. We also identified the validity to be appropriate by comparing the cancer pain and post-operative pain and examining the intensity of pain, effect due to cognition of cancer, and medication.