Adapted version of the mcgill pain questionnaire to Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to the present a translated version of the McGill Pain Questionnaire to Brazilian Portuguese that adapted the original pain descriptors according to the Brazilian culture, aiming at its scientific validation. Initially, the original questionnaire was translated by 3 legally recognized translators fluent in English and in Brazilian Portuguese. The translations were meticulously assessed by 5 health professionals (3 dentists, 1 physician and 1 medical student) who were asked to choose the best translation for each pain descriptor of the original questionnaire in English. The resulting questionnaire was applied to 80 subjects (20 professors, 20 dental students, 20 employees and 20 patients, all related to the School of Dentistry of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo). After some adjustments to improve the understanding of the pain descriptors, an adaptation of the intensity values of each pain descriptor was done by 20 postgraduate dental students and 20 undergraduate dental students, who were asked to record, for each word, the pain intensity value based on their personal opinion. In addition, they were asked to fill out the final version of the questionnaire to identify any doubts. The McGill Pain Questionnaire proved to be a very useful tool for measuring pain, and its version in Brazilian Portuguese was validated to be used as an important diagnostic resource.

Tradução, adaptação cultural e aplicação de um questionário de dor para pacientes com doença renal policística

“…Pain has been reported as a very frequent symptom of ADPKD patients, affecting up to 60% of them 15,32 and jeopardizing their quality of life. 33 Because that symptom involves a series of sensorial qualities and subjective aspects, 22,32 it requires a careful investigation by a multiprofessional team. Duarte et al 23 have emphasized the importance of using proper instruments to assess the situations and experiences in the health area, so that reliable information is obtained.…”

“…Duarte et al 23 have emphasized the importance of using proper instruments to assess the situations and experiences in the health area, so that reliable information is obtained. Despite the existence of some pain questionnaires translated and validated in Brazil, 22,34 none of them has the necessary and/or adequate specifications to assess pain in ADPKD. Thus, this study aimed at performing a translation and transcultural adaptation of an English pain questionnaire, already validated to be used in ADPKD patients.…”

“…In the phase of transcultural adaptation, the use of more simple expressions or synonyms, in addition to the suppression of words in the backtranslation, has already occurred in other studies of translation and transcultural adaptation performed in Brazil, 22,24 without jeopardizing the final result of the study. Differently from the English original questionnaire that was self--applied, 16 in our study, the questionnaire was applied during the pre-consultation, so that the greatest amount of information could be obtained from the patient, in addition to preventing and minimizing the number of non-responders usually found with self--applied questionnaires.…”

“…6,15,22,32 The use of that questionnaire has also evidenced that the presence of a family Translation, cultural adaptation and aplication of a pain questionnaire for patients with polycystic kidney disease history of ADPKD was the finding that most frequently led to the diagnosis of ADPKD (55% of the cases). However, low back pain was the symptom most frequently reported by the patients (13%), and, when added to abdominal pain, it reached 22% of the patients, confirming that pain can contribute to the diagnosis of ADPKD.…”

“…The cost and complexity involved in the elaboration of a questionnaire can be minimized by the use of a translated questionnaire already validated in other countries. 22 However, transcultural adaptation of such questionnaires is required for their use in each country. 23,24 The present study aimed at performing the Portuguese translation and transcultural adaptation of a pain questionnaire specific for ADPKD patients, developed and validated by Bajwa et al 16 in 2004, and at its application in a sample of ADPKD patients.…”