Assessment of self-reported physical activity in patients with chronic pain: development of an abbreviated Roland-Morris disability scale.

UNLABELLED: The Roland-Morris Disability Scale has been shown to be a reliable and valid measure of disability in persons with chronic pain. A short form with psychometric properties similar to the full scale would have numerous benefits, including decreased patient assessment burden and scoring time. On the basis of data obtained from 993 individuals with chronic pain screened for admission to a multidisciplinary pain management program, an 11-item short form of the Roland scale was developed using procedures and models from item response theory. This short form was found to be a good predictor of the 24-item parent scale and a previously published 18-item short form. The 11-item scale also demonstrated concurrent validity with measures of pain intensity and depression. Item content reflected limitations in specific functional behaviors. PERSPECTIVE: Brief measures of important pain-related variables can be created using item response theory (IRT). In this study, a reliable and valid 11-item version of the Roland-Morris Disability Scale was created using IRT. Clinicians and researchers might consider using this scale when patient or subject assessment burden is an issue.