Initial psychometric testing and validation of the French version of the Canine Brief Pain Inventory

The Canine Brief Pain Inventory (CBPI) is an owner-completed questionnaire quantifying the severity and impact of chronic pain in dogs. The English version of the CBPI was adapted into French and the objective of this study was to validate this French version of the CBPI.

Prospective clinical study.

A group of 32 dogs with a medical history, clinical signs and radiographic evidence consistent with osteoarthritis.

Owners of dogs with osteoarthritis who were native French speakers completed a single administration of the translated questionnaire. The psychometric properties were evaluated including construct validity (by factor analysis), reliability (internal consistency) and convergent validity.

Factor analysis on the responses from this cohort confirmed a two-factor questionnaire: the Pain Severity (PS) factor and the Pain Interference (PI) factor. The mean inter-item correlation for PS and PI questions was 0.74 and 0.53, respectively. These findings reveal strong internal consistency, suggesting that the questions contained within each factor measure the same concept and can be pooled to generate the PS score (PSS) and PI score (PIS). Cronbach's α was 0.91 and 0.87 for PSS and PIS, respectively. There was strong negative correlation between PSS and PIS with the overall quality of life score (r = -0.62 and r = -0.79, respectively, with p < 0.001 for both), consistent with the hypothesis that increases in PS and PS with function are highly correlated with a corresponding decrease in overall quality of life.

Initial validation of this French version of the CBPI represents an important step in the expanded use of validated owner-completed outcome assessment instruments for use by researchers and clinicians who seek reliable methods to quantify the severity and impact of chronic pain in dogs with osteoarthritis.