Multidimensional Pain Inventory (Spinal Cord Injury Version)

Spinal Cord Injury:

(Widerstrom-Noga et al, 2006; n = 161; mean age = 43.5(13.4) years, mean time post-SCI = 10.9(7.8) years; 58% complete/31% incomplete, 47% cervical injury/52% below cervical injury; MPI-SCI administered in interview format) 

• Excellent test-retest reliability for Life Interference (ICC = 0.81), Solicitous Responses (ICC = 0.86), Distracting Responses (ICC = 0.85), and Pain Interference with Activities (ICC = 0.78) Subscales 
• Adequate test-retest reliability for Pain Severity (ICC = 0.69), Affective Distress (ICC = 0.71), Support (ICC = 0.59), and Negative Responses (ICC = 0.69), and General Activity (ICC = 0.69) Subscales 
• Poor test-retest reliability for Life Control (ICC = 0.26) Subscale

Spinal Cord Injury:

(Widerstrom-Noga et al, 2006) 

• Excellent internal consistency for Life Interference (Cronbach α = 0.90), Negative Responses (Cronbach α = 0.87), General Activity (Cronbach α = 0.83), Pain Interference with Activities (Cronbach α-0.94) Subscales 
• Adequate internal consistency for Pain Severity (Cronbach α = 0.76), Support (Cronbach α = 0.72), and Distracting Responses (Cronbach α = 0.71) Subscales 
• Poor internal consistency for Life Control (Cronbach α = 0.61), Affective Distress (Cronbach α = 0.60), and Solicitous Responses

Concurrent Validity

Spinal Cord Injury:

(Widerstrom-Noga et al, 2006) 

• General Activity subscale: 
  • People with tetraplegia scored lower than people with paraplegia with mean scores of 34.3(16.4) vs. 45.0(19.4) respectively (p < 0.000, moderate effect size (0.6)) 

Predictive Validity

Spinal Cord Injury:

(Widerstrom-Noga et al, 2006) 

• Five subscales (high levels of life control, low levels of affective distress, high general activity levels and low degree of life interference) significantly predicted satisfaction with life on the Satisfaction with Life Scale (p < 0.000)

Spinal Cord Injury:

(Widerstrom-Noga et al, 2006) 

• Excellent correlation of Pain Severity subscale with Numeric Rating Scale for pain intensity (r = 0.61) 
• Excellent and Adequate correlation with Pain Disability Index respectively of Life Interference subscale (r = 0.61) and Pain Interference with Activities subscale (r = 0.59) 
• Adequate correlation of the General Activity subscale with the Functional Independence Measure (r = 0.41) 
• Adequate correlation of the Life Control subscale (r = 0.35) with the Internal Health Locus of Control (IHLC) subscale of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale (MHLC) 
• Adequate correlation of the Affective Distress subscale (r = 0.51) with the Beck Depression Inventory 
• Poor correlation of the Support subscale with the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (r = 0.23), Negative Responses subscale (r = 0.05), Solicitous Responses subscale (r = 0.14), Distracting Responses subscale (r = 0.13) 

Discriminant Validity

Spinal Cord Injury:

(Widerstrom-Noga et al, 2006) 

• Poor correlation between all MPI-SCI subscales except for the Life Control subscale and the IHLC (r = -0.06-0.13), confirming discriminative validity of the scales.

Spinal Cord Injury:

(Widerstrom-Noga et al, 2002; n = 120; mean age = 42.1(12.1) years; mean time post-SCI = 9.8(5.2) years; MPI-SCI administered in written questionnaire format) 

• During development of the MPI-SCI, confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were performed for each subscale of the Multidimensional Pain Inventory. As a result, six items were removed. An additional question per item of the General Activity subscale was added to determine whether in decrease in activity was due to pain. 

Spinal Cord Injury:

(Cruz-Almeida et al, 2009; n = 180; mean age = 41.6(13.4) years; mean time post-SCI = 9.5(8.9) years; ASIA A/B=69.5%, ASIA C/D=30%; MPI –SCI administered in written questionnaire format) 

• Life Interference subscale appears to test limitations related to pain rather than other functional impairments related to SCI or average pain intensity as evidenced by the following findings: 
  • Excellent correlation with the Pain Disabilities Index (r = 0.61) 
  • Adequate correlation with the Pain Interference with Daily Activities subscale (r = 0.58) and the Beck Depression Inventory (r = 0.39) 
  • Poor correlation with the Functional Independence Measure (r = -0.17) and the General Activity subscale (r = -0.13) 
  • Poor correlation with Average Pain Intensity on Numeric Rating Scale (r = 0.29)

Spinal Cord Injury:

(Widerstrom-Noga et al, 2002) 

• 10 people with chronic pain and SCI reviewed the SCI-specific questions during development of the MPI-SCI. All 10 people reported a clear understanding of the questions with no modification to the wording required.