Measurement Properties of the Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire in Individuals With Chronic Shoulder Pain

To evaluate the reliability, construct validity, responsiveness, and interpretability of the Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire with 10 items (PSEQ-10) in individuals with chronic shoulder pain.

Measurement properties study.

Outpatient rehabilitation.

A total of 105 individuals (N=105) with chronic shoulder pain were included.

Not applicable.

At baseline, participants completed the PSEQ-10, Chronic Pain Self-Efficacy Scale (CPSS), Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI), and Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS). After a 7-10 day interval, a second assessment was performed in which all participants completed the PSEQ-10 and NPRS. After 8 weeks of clinical intervention, 89 individuals were reassessed using the PSEQ-10, CPSS, SPADI, NPRS, and global perceived effect (GPE) to analyze responsiveness and interpretability.

The PSEQ-10 demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α=0.89), acceptable intrarater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.70), an SEM of 6.56 points, and a minimal detectable change of 18.2 points. Moderate correlations with the CPSS (r=0.62) and SPADI (r=-0.42) supported construct validity. The questionnaire showed an effect size of 0.98, area under the curve (AUC) of 0.71 (95% CI, 0.578-0.853), and a minimal important change of 1.5 points based on the GPE (AUC=0.77; 95% CI, 0.645-0.897) and 5.5 points based on the CPSS (AUC=0.67; 95% CI, 0.539-0.803), as well as 3.5 points with the SPADI.

The PSEQ-10 is a reliable and valid tool for point-in-time assessment of self-efficacy in individuals with chronic shoulder pain. Future research should investigate the stability of this construct and refine clinically meaningful change thresholds in this population.