Validity of the Sickness Impact Profile Roland scale as a measure of dysfunction in chronic pain patients.

This study examined the reliability and validity of the Roland scale (taken from the Sickness Impact Profile: SIP) as a measure of dysfunction among chronic pain patients. One hundred forty-four subjects completed the SIP when they were screened for admission to an inpatient pain management program. One hundred sixteen subjects were subsequently re-administered the SIP at admission to inpatient treatment. A 3-month post-treatment administration of the SIP was performed for 52 of these subjects. Roland scale scores were calculated from the SIP for each patient. Test-retest stability coefficients indicated that the SIP Roland scale was generally as reliable as the SIP Total, Physical, and Psychosocial scale scores. Consistent with previous research, correlational analyses indicated that the SIP Roland scale is strongly associated with the SIP Physical but not the SIP Psychosocial scale. The SIP Roland scale and the other SIP scales demonstrated similar sensitivity to changes associated with multidisciplinary inpatient treatment for chronic pain. Finally, the pattern of relationships between the SIP Roland scale and several pain-related measures supported the concurrent validity of the SIP Roland scale. The results of the analyses were very similar for patients presenting with and without low back pain. The study supports the reliability and validity of the SIP Roland scale items for assessing dysfunction of chronic pain patients with pain in sites other than the low back as well as those with low back pain.