The Fear of Pain questionnaire: factor structure in samples of young, middle‐aged and elderly European people

Abstract

The present study examined the factor structure of the Fear of Pain questionnaire in three independent samples composed of European young adults, middle-aged, and elderly people. Seven hundred and thirty one adults (426 females and 305 males) were presented with the French adaptation of the questionnaire (30 items) and with an Exposure to Painful Situations questionnaire that contained the same items as the Fear of Pain questionnaire and where participants were instructed to indicate all the painful situations they have experienced in the past. When tested on the whole set of 30 items, the correlated three-factor model evidenced in previous studies - Severe pain, Minor pain and Medical pain - poorly fit the data. When tested on a set of 15 two-item parcels, the fit of this model was much better but the correlations between factors were very high. When tested on a reduced set of 15 items, the model fit the data as well as when it was tested on the set of 15 parcels, and the correlations between the three factors were lower. The study also examined the link between previous exposure to pain and fear of pain. The hypothesis that previous "natural" exposure to pain should generally result in a decrease in fear of pain was supported by the data. For 14 items, the exposure effect was moderate to strong.

Fear of Pain Influences Outcomes After Exercise-induced Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness at the Shoulder

“…17 The FPQ-III is a commonly used and well-validated instrument that is appropriate for use in nonclinical and clinical populations. [17][18][19] We reported the total score of the FPQ-III as it best matched a current fear-avoidance model and our proposed hypotheses.…”

Big Five personality traits contribute to prosocial responses to others’ pain

“…To introduce situational beliefs to painful facial expressions four painful localizations have been employed, gathered in two situations: life-threatening pain (LTP) including chest and thorax pains (Hadlandsmyth, Rosenbaum, Craft, Gervino, & White, 2013), and non-life-threatening pain (NLTP) comprising hand and foot pains (Albaret, Muñoz Sastre, Cottencin, & Mullet, 2004). They were introduced with words (e.g., this person is experiencing chest pain), before each facial expressions' presentation.…”

Evidence for a biopsychosocial influence on shoulder pain: Pain catastrophizing and catechol- O -methyltransferase (COMT) diplotype predict clinical pain ratings

“…These psychological factors were assessed with previously validated self-report questionnaires commonly used in pain research. Fear of pain was assessed with the Fear of Pain Questionnaire (FPQ-III) (McNeil and Rainwater, 1998;Osman et al, 2002;Albaret et al, 2004), kinesiophobia was assessed with the shortened version of the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK-11) Roelofs et al, 2004;Woby et al, 2005), pain catastrophizing was assessed with the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) (Sullivan et al, 1995;Van Damme et al, 2002;D'Eon et al, 2004). Trait anxiety was assessed with the State-Trait Anxiety Index (STAI) (Spielberger et al, 1983).…”