Prevalence of Chronic Pain Among Libyan Adults in Derna City: A Pilot Study to Assess the Reliability, Linguistic Validity, and Feasibility of Using an Arabic Version of the Structured Telephone Interviews Questionnaire on Chronic Pain

Abstract

There are few studies estimating the prevalence of chronic pain in countries from the Middle East. We translated the Structured Telephone Interviews Questionnaire on Chronic Pain from English into Arabic and assessed its reliability and linguistic validity before using it in a telephone survey in Libya to gather preliminary prevalence data for chronic pain. Intraclass correlations for scaled items were high, and there were no differences in answers to nominal items between the first and second completions of the questionnaire. One hundred and 4 individuals participated in a telephone survey. The prevalence of chronic pain was 25.0% (95% CI, 16.7% to 33.3%) and 50.0% (95% CI: 30.8% to 69.2) of the participants with chronic pain scored ≥ 12 on the Arabic S-LANSS. Mean ± SD duration of pain was 2.8 ± 1.2 years, and pain was more frequent in women (P = 0.02). 53.8% of participants had taken prescription medication for their pain, and 76.9% had used nondrug methods of treatment including traditional Libyan methods such as Kamara, a local herbal concoction. Eighty percent believed that their doctor would rather treat their illness than their pain, and 35% reported that their doctor did not think that their pain was a problem. Some participants complained that the questionnaire was too long with a mean ± SD call duration of 20 ± 5.4 minutes. We conclude that the Arabic Structured Telephone Interviews Questionnaire on Chronic Pain was reliable and linguistically valid and could be used in a large-scale telephone survey on the Libyan population. Our preliminary estimate of prevalence should be considered with caution because of the small sample size.

The epidemiology of chronic pain in Libya: a cross-sectional telephone survey

“…Methodology was developed following the results of pilot studies that had translated the following questionnaires into Arabic and validated their use for telephone interviews in Libyan populations [ 11 – 13 ]: The Structured Telephone Interviews Questionnaire on Chronic Pain which was used to collect the data for the Pain in Europe survey in 2006 [ 10 ]. This questionnaire was used to estimate the prevalence of chronic pain of ≥3 months duration and to gather information about aetiology, treatments and attitudes about living with chronic pain [ 12 ]; The Self-completed Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs (S-LANSS) questionnaire to estimate prevalence of neuropathic pain [ 11 , 13 ] …”

“…The Structured Telephone Interviews Questionnaire on Chronic Pain which was used to collect the data for the Pain in Europe survey in 2006 [ 10 ]. This questionnaire was used to estimate the prevalence of chronic pain of ≥3 months duration and to gather information about aetiology, treatments and attitudes about living with chronic pain [ 12 ];…”

“…Sample size was calculated using data collected from a pilot study in Derna city [ 12 ]. Raosoft software (Federal Way, Washington, USA) was used to calculate the number of people required to be screened to detect a 25 % prevalence of pain, with a 3 % margin of error (95 % power at the 5 % significant level).…”

Prevalence of chronic pain in Libya before and after the uprising of 17 February 2011

“…Two questionnaires were translated into Arabic and culturally adapted to measure chronic pain and neuropathic pain in the general population in Derna, Libya (1, 2), and then in a country-wide survey. A point prevalence of chronic pain and neuropathic pain in Libya was determined.…”

Ocular pain and discomfort after advanced surface ablation: an ignored complaint

“…Nevertheless, this type of procedure (telephone questionnaire) in a survey study is considered reliable and valid and has been used for evaluating acute events 38 , 39 and chronic pain. 40 On the other hand, one of the problems related to telephone surveys is their duration, which could influence the quality of the answer. This study was done in a 10-minute time period.…”