Well-being in pain questionnaire: A novel, reliable, and valid tool for assessment of the personal well-being in individuals with chronic low back pain.

Background: Well-being is closely related to health, recovery, and longevity. Chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) is a major health challenge in the general population, which can have a negative effect on subjective well-being. The ability to identify patients' well-being protective factors, including psychological, social, and lifestyle components, can help guide the therapeutic process in the management of CMP. Recognizing the absence of a dedicated well-being questionnaire, tailored specifically for CMP populations, an 11-item well-being in pain questionnaire (WPQ) was developed.

Objectives: The objectives were to develop a valid and reliable patient-reported measure of personal pain-specific well-being protective factors and to evaluate its psychometric properties, including (i) internal consistency; (ii) known-group validity between subjects with chronic low back pain (CLBP) and healthy pain-free controls; (iii) convergent validity between the WPQ and measures of health-related quality of life, catastrophizing, sleep quality, symptoms of central sensitization, and anxiety; and (iv) structural validity with exploratory factor analysis.

Design: This is a cross-sectional validation study.

Methods: After reviewing previous CMP and well-being literature, the novel WPQ items were constructed by expert consensus and target population feedback. The psychometric properties of the WPQ were evaluated in a sample of 145 participants, including 92 subjects with CLBP and 53 pain-free controls.

Results: Feedback from a preliminary group of CMP patients about the relevance, content, and usability of the test items was positive. Internal consistency showed acceptable results (α = 0.89). The assessment of convergent validity showed moderate correlations (≤0.4 or ≥-0.4.) with well-established subject-reported outcome measures. The assessment of structural validity yielded a one-factor solution, supporting the unidimensionality of the WPQ.

Conclusions: The psychometric results provided evidence of acceptable reliability and validity of the WPQ. Further research is needed to determine the usability of the WPQ as an assessment and outcome tool in the comprehensive management of subjects with CMP.