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

本研究的目的是开发一种基于定性评估的测量方法。我们关注癌症患者的疼痛作为个体的主观体验。在第一阶段，我们评估了McGill疼痛问卷(MPQ)的信度和效度，该问卷是一种关注疼痛言语表达的疼痛测量量表。结果表明，MPQ中情感疼痛描述这一范畴在表达癌症患者的各种内心体验时缺乏足够的情绪性言语表达，而且我们认为MPQ的结果由于文化和语言的差异而失去了一定的效度。我们首先考察了癌症疼痛的定性方面，将癌症疼痛分为感觉性疼痛、情绪性疼痛和与日常生活活动困难相关的疼痛三类。这份定性问卷由84个疼痛描述词组成。接下来，我们研究了癌症疼痛的量化方面，并将其分为5个方面，如强度、频率、范围、持续时间和深度。在第三阶段，我们检验了编制的疼痛问卷的信度和效度。研究对象为121例癌症患者和68例术后患者。我们通过对数据的分析，确定了统计可靠性足够高。我们还通过比较癌症疼痛和术后疼痛，并检查疼痛强度、对癌症认知的影响和药物治疗，确定了有效性。

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.