Measurement of pain among electricians with neck dysfunction

The aim of the study was to develop a pain measurement instrument in Swedish intended for use in epidemiological surveys, and to report the pain assessments of individuals in a working population. The focus was on somato-sensory description in relation to work performance. The material comprised 22 randomly selected electricians attending health checkups, and reporting neck pain during the past week. The pain estimations were made in oral interviews using a specially developed questionnaire. Neck extension and hands above shoulder height caused increased neck pain in all the subjects. The quantitative assessments of present pain showed a limited intensity. To describe the pain quality a wide spectrum of words was used as pain descriptors, but five adjectives were preferred. The more the pain was spread on the pain drawing, the more differentiated was the assessment of its quality. The results concluded that the pain assessment instrument might be useful in epidemiological investigations of musculoskeletal neck dysfunctions.