Development of the Fibromyalgia Burden Assessment: measuring the multifaceted burden of fibromyalgia

To develop a questionnaire assessing the burden of fibromyalgia's impacts on patients' lives.

A literature review was conducted to identify impacts of fibromyalgia and their consequences on patients' lives. Exploratory interviews were performed with 15 fibromyalgia patients in France, Germany and Spain. Using patients' wording, items were generated simultaneously in French, German, Spanish, and UK English. Relevance and comprehension of the resulting questionnaire versions were tested with 21 additional fibromyalgia patients; questionnaires were revised accordingly.

Three domains, Burden associated with the impacts of fibromyalgia, Symptoms and Influencing factors, were identified from the literature review. Following patient interviews, the burden domain was further divided based on the nature of the impact: Pain, Physical impact (including tiredness, sleep problems and other symptoms), Activities of Daily Living impact (including autonomy and coping), Social and Family Life impact, Work, Studies and Personal Finances impact, Psychological impact (including cognitive impact), and Relationship to Medicine and Disease. The resulting test versions of the questionnaire contained 79 items. Comprehension tests identified problematic items and cultural differences and suggested deletions or rewording. After revision and linguistic harmonization, the pilot version of the questionnaire contained 62 items divided into 7 sections, and was named Fibromyalgia Burden Assessment (FMBA©).

The FMBA is a self-reported questionnaire allowing the assessment and a better understanding of the impacts of fibromyalgia and the burden associated with these on patients' daily lives. It is available in UK English, French, German and Spanish. Its scoring and validation remain to be undertaken.