The utility of the Faces Pain Scale in the assessment of shoulder pain in Turkish stroke patients: its relation with quality of life and psychologic status.

This study was planned to investigate the utility of the vertical Faces Pain Scale (FPS) in the assessment of pain in stroke patients using the shoulder pain model and to assess its utility in the Turkish patient population. The secondary aim was to analyze the association of FPS with the quality of life and depression in the study population.Thirty stroke patients (group I) and 30 controls (group II),all suffering from shoulder pain were included in the study.The patients with subacute shoulder pain and with no other known diseases and impairments were recruited as a control group. Shoulder pain was evaluated by the commonly used pain scales including the Visual Analogue Scale, Likert Pain Scale and 0–10 Numerical Rating Scale besides FPS. Depression was screened using Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and quality of life was evaluated using Short Form-36 (SF-36). FPS showed good correlations with the other pain scales in both the groups(r= 0.950–0.972 and 0.674–0.926, respectively). In group I,there were significant correlations between FPS and physical functioning, pain and emotional role subscales of SF-36 (r= – 0.432, 0.707 and – 0.461, respectively).Although there was a low correlation between the FPS and BDI scores, it was not statistically significant. In group II,FPS showed significant correlations with the BDI scores and all subscales of SF-36 except social functioning and vitality (r= – 0.679 to 0.848). FPS had a high degree of convergent validity and can be used in the assessment of shoulder pain in stroke patients. It may be a good alternative for pain assessment especially in patients with speech disorders and illiterate patients.