The burn specific pain anxiety scale: introduction of a reliable and valid measure

The burn specific pain anxiety scale (BSPAS) is a nine-item self-report scale for the assessment of pain-related and anticipatory anxiety in burned patients. This paper describes a study designed to explore the psychometric properties of the scale. The study used 35 burned patients hospitalized in Rotterdam and Groningen, The Netherlands, to confirm the internal consistency of the instrument and provide an assessment of its validity. The alpha coefficient was high: 0.94. The BSPAS correlated statistically significantly with the STAI-S, procedural pain, non-procedural pain, and nurses' visual analog observation ratings of tension.