Are people good prognosticators of their own pain? An exploration of the relationship between sex-specific pain beliefs and clinical pain evaluation

Lauren N Straatman; Michael J Lukacs; Joshua Y Lee; Maryam Ghodrati; Emily A Lalone; David M Walton

doi:10.1016/j.msksp.2022.102667

Are people good prognosticators of their own pain? An exploration of the relationship between sex-specific pain beliefs and clinical pain evaluation

Musculoskelet Sci Pract. 2022 Dec:62:102667. doi: 10.1016/j.msksp.2022.102667. Epub 2022 Sep 30.

Authors

Lauren N Straatman¹, Michael J Lukacs², Joshua Y Lee³, Maryam Ghodrati⁴, Emily A Lalone⁵, David M Walton²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; Bone and Joint Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: lstraatm@uwo.ca.
² Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; School of Physical Therapy, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; Bone and Joint Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
³ Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; School of Physical Therapy, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁵ Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; Bone and Joint Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.

PMID: 36198201
DOI: 10.1016/j.msksp.2022.102667

Abstract

Background: Under-explored to date are the interacting influences of patient sex on multi-modal evaluation techniques that tap different domains of the pain experience.

Objectives: The primary aim of Study 1 was to explore the accuracy of sex-specific personal pain beliefs in relation to quantitative pain indicators within sexes, and the secondary objective was to compare the accuracy of sex-specific personal pain beliefs in relation to quantitative pain indicators between sexes. The primary objective of Study 2 was to explore the accuracy of sex-specific personal pain beliefs and self-rated pain severity within sexes, and the secondary objective was to compare sex-specific personal pain beliefs and pain severity ratings between sexes.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis on two datasets was performed (Study 1, n = 50; Study 2, n = 111). For both studies, independent samples t-tests were used to identify differences in clinical pain evaluations based on sex-specific pain beliefs. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were used to compare the predictive accuracy of males and females clinical pain evaluations based on their ability to handle pain.

Results: There were no statistically significant differences in clinical pain evaluations based on self-rated pain beliefs in either study. In Study 2, males were descriptively more accurate predictors of their clinical pain evaluations than were females, though none of the between sex comparisons were statistically significant.

Conclusion: This work highlights the importance of considering all available clinical pain evaluations as one technique is unlikely to represent the patients pain experience.

Keywords: Clinical pain evaluation; GREP; Predictive ability; Self-rated pain; Sex-specific pain beliefs.

MeSH terms

Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Male
Pain Measurement
Pain*
Surveys and Questionnaires