Reliability and validation of Turkish version of the Dallas Pain Questionnaire

Evaluation of low back pain (LBP) requires a condition specific disability questionnaire along with pain and satisfaction measure such as self-assessment pain scales. Dallas Pain Questionnaire (DPQ) is a 16-item visual analog scale, developed for evaluating patient's cognitions about the percentage that chronic pain affects four aspects of the subject's lives. It's easy to understand; can be answered in 3-5 min and can be scored in <1 min. This reliability and validation study offers health-care providers an opportunity to utilize this distinct questionnaire in Turkish population with back pain. The objectives are translation of Dallas questionnaire from English to Turkish language and to perform validation and reliability study.

A total of 102 patients (79 women and 23 men) with mean age of 50.2 years and LBP for at least 3 months answered DPQ along with five other previously translated and validated questionnaires in Turkish language. Fifty-nine of these patients participated retest reliability after 7 days. Internal consistency and test-retest analyzes were conducted to determine the reliability and convergent validity was evaluated for the validation study.

The questionnaire was noted to have high internal consistency. The test-retest analysis revealed an excellent correlation (ICC=0.969). Pearson correlation coefficient shows that all subscales (sections) of DPQ are significant and comparable with each of the other questionnaires included in this study proving that it has sufficient convergent validity (p<0.001).

The Turkish version of DPQ is content, valid, and reliable. DPQ is sensitive to use in patients with LBP.