The DOI matches its Crossref record; 17 of the 17 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Comparison of a verbal numeric rating scale with the visual analogue scale for the measurement of acute pain
Abstract
Objectives: To test the agreement between the visual analogue scale (VAS) and a verbal numeric rating scale (VNRS) in measuring acute pain, and measure the minimum clinically significant change in VNRS. Methods: Patients scored their pain by the VAS and the VNRS, then re‐scored their pain every 30 min for up to 2 h. Patients also recorded whether their pain had improved or worsened. Agreement between scores was evaluated, and where patients scored their pain as ‘a bit worse’ or ‘a bit better’ the mean change in VNRS was calculated. Results: A total of 309 paired observations were obtained from 79 patients. The VAS and VNRS were highly correlated (r = 0.95, 95% CI 0.94–0.96). The VNRS was significantly higher than the VAS for the paired observations, with 95% of the differences between VAS and VNRS lying between −2.3 and 1.3 cm. The minimum clinically significant difference in VNRS was 1.4 cm (95% CI 1.2–1.6). Conclusions: The VNRS performs as well as the VAS in assessing changes in pain. However, although the VAS and VNRS are well correlated, patients systematically score their pain higher on the VNRS, with an unacceptably wide distribution of the differences.
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Cites
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Cited by
Dworkin, R. H., Turk, D. C., Wyrwich, K. W., Beaton, D., Cleeland, C. S., Farrar, J. T., Haythornthwaite, J. A., Jensen, M. P., Kerns, R. D., Ader, D. N., et al. (2008) · The Journal of Pain · doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2007.09.005 · Cited by 3,471
Hjermstad, M. J., Fayers, P. M., Haugen, D. F., Caraceni, A., Hanks, G. W., Loge, J. H., Fainsinger, R., Aass, N., & Kaasa, S. (2011) · Journal of Pain and Symptom Management · doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2010.08.016 · Cited by 2,697
The validity of pain intensity measures: what do the NRS, VAS, VRS, and FPS-R measure?
Thong, I. S. K., Jensen, M. P., Miró, J., & Tan, G. (2018) · Scandinavian Journal of Pain · doi:10.1515/sjpain-2018-0012 · Cited by 652
Desrochers, G., Bergeron, S., Khalifé, S., Dupuis, M.-J., & Jodoin, M. (2010) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2009.09.014 · Cited by 123
Metadata
- Authors
- Holdgate, A., Asha, S., Craig, J., & Thompson, J.
- Venue
- Emergency Medicine
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2003-10
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 5-6
- Pages
- 441-446
- ISSN
- 1035-6851 (ISSN-L)
- 1442-2026
- OpenAlex
- W1994868670
- Cited by
- 275
- References
- 17
- FWCI
- 4.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Holdgate, A., Asha, S., Craig, J., & Thompson, J. (2003). Comparison of a verbal numeric rating scale with the visual analogue scale for the measurement of acute pain. Emergency Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1442-2026.2003.00499.x
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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