BioPsychoSocial Assessment Tools for the Elderly - Assessment Summary Sheet Test: Medical Outcomes Study Pain Measures (MOS) Year: 1992 Domain: Biological Assessment Tool Category: Pain Variations/Translations: Also available in Spanish. Setting: For use as outcome measures and in population surveys. Method of Delivery: As a survey or clinical interview. Description: The MOS covers pain severity in terms of intensity, frequency, and duration while recording the impact on behaviours and moods. MOS contains twelve self report items on the severity of pain over the past four weeks and its effect on mood and behaviours. When used as a survey, a filter question “did you experience any bodily pain during the past 4 weeks?” may be added to identify those for whom the pain questions need not be asked. Scoring/Interpretation: Respondents who skip the questions are given a score of one (no interference) on item four, the effects of pain measure. Those who experienced pain more than once during this time are asked to describe their feelings of pain in general. The pain effects score is calculated by averaging across all six items, giving a score from 1 to 5. This is then transformed to a zero to 100 scale. For the pain severity scale, each item is first standardized to a mean of zero and standard deviation of one; then the items are averaged. High score indicate more pain. Time to Administer: N/A Availability: Available in McDowell (2006) Software: N/A Website: N/A Quantitative/Qualitative: Quantitative and qualitative Validity (Quantitative): Correlation of the four main measures were presented with 15 criterion scores drawn from the MOS (N=3,053). Correlations with a physical symptom score ranged from 0.52 (days pain interfered) to 0.68 (overall pain score). Correlations with a health distress score ranged from 0.43 to 0.57. Reliability (Quantitative): The severity and effects of pain items all correlated 0.57 or higher with their scale scores. Internal consistency for the overall score was 0.93. For the effects score, it was 0.91 and for the severity score it was 0.86. References: McDowell, I. (2006). Measuring Health: A guide to rating scales and questionnaires 3rd Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Sherbourne, C.D., (1992). Pain measures. In: Stewart, A.L. & Ware, J.E., eds. Measuring functioning and well-being: the Medical Outcomes Study approach. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, pages 220-234. Comments: N/A