The utility of pain disability assessment scale for evaluating the treatment outcome of musculoskeletal pain and non-musculoskeletal pain

Abstract

We investigated utility of the pain disability assessment scale (PDAS) for evaluating the treatment outcome in people with a musculoskeletal pain other than low back pain (M group) and with a non-musculoskeletal pain (NM group). One hundred and one patients, who visited the Interdisciplinary Pain Center of Keio University Hospital from July 2018 to February 2020, were included. Pain intensity and disability were assessed using the numerical rating scale (NRS) and PDAS at the first visit and at 3 months. Both groups showed a significant decrease in NRS during the 3-month-treatment period (M group: p＜0.001, NM group: p＝0.02), while the PDAS significantly improved only in the M group (p＝0.01). Improvement of the PDAS was significantly correlated with decrease of NRS in the M group (p＜0.001). However, there was no correlation between the PDAS and NRS in the NM group (p＝0.91), suggesting the need for a highly disease-specific assessment for disability.