Validation of the Spanish Version of the Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia Scale (PAINAD-Sp) in Hospitalized Patients with Neurologic Disorders and Oncologic Patients Unable to Self-Report Their Pain.

Background: Pain has a significant impact on hospitalized patients and is a quality indicator for nursing care. The Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia (PAINAD) scale measures pain in people with communication disorders and advanced dementia, but it has not been validated in any other population.

Aims: The aim of this study was to validate the Spanish version (PAINAD-Sp) in hospitalized patients with neurologic disorders and in end-of-life cancer patients with difficulty self-reporting.

Design: The study had two phases: (1) analysis of the content by a committee of experts and (2) a cross-sectional study.

Settings: We collected phase 2 data from January 2017 to December 2017 in four hospitals in Barcelona: Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Institut Català d'Oncologia, Hospital Vall d'Hebron, and Hospital de Bellvitge.

Participants/subjects: We included all adults who had either a neurological disorder affecting language or an oncological disease with an end-of-life prognosis and difficulty self-reporting pain. We excluded patients with a diagnosis of dementia.

Methods: The cross-sectional study included 325 patients who were simultaneously evaluated by two observers both at rest and in movement. We analyzed psychometric properties in terms of construct validity, reliability, and sensitivity to change.

Results: We obtained Cronbach α > .70 in both situations and an inter-rater reliability of 0.80. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the model adjusted adequately to a unidimensional structure. In terms of sensitivity to change, the mean difference was greater in movement than at rest (difference in means was 1.15).

Conclusions: The PAINAD-Sp_Hosp scale had good psychometric qualities in terms of validity and reliability in neurology and oncology patients unable to self-report pain.