We are interested in learning whether or not you are affected by PAIN. Please circle the number below that describes your pain in the past 2 weeks:

No pain	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Severe pain

Scoring

The score is the number circled or histogram marked (radio buttons below the numbers are used on the Internet version). Scores range from 0 to 10, with the higher score indicating more pain. If two consecutive numbers are circled, score the higher (more pain) number, if two non-consecutive numbers are circled, do not score.

Characteristics

Tested on 122 subjects.

Source of Psychometric Data

English language participants in the Stanford/El Paso Border Diabetes Project. Study reported in Lorig KR, Ritter PL, Jacquez A. Outcomes of Border Health Spanish/English Chronic Disease Self-management Programs. The Diabetes Educator 2005; 31(3):401-409.

Comments

This scale is a modified version of the visual analog scale. We found that this scale is easier for subjects to use, resulting in less missing and unclear responses. The scale above is that used for our Internet studies, with color and shading used. The psychometrics were done on a print black-and-white version, which is printed in the PDF version of this page (see link on the bottom of this page). We have used these anchor phrases and a variation, "pain as bad as could be", for the right-hand anchor. We have used "Severe pain" or "Severe pain or discomfort" for some time, in order to keep phrases for pain, fatigue, and shortness of breath scales consistent. They psychometrics are based on "Severe Pain". The VNS was originally developed in Spanish.

References

Ritter PL, González VM, Laurent DD, Lorig KR. Measurement of Pain Using the Visual Numeric Scale. Journal of Rheumatology, 33(3), 574-80, 2006.

To download this scale and scoring instructions, right click the link below with your mouse and "Save as" to you hard disk or desktop (for Windows), or double click (Mac):

Download PDF version