Development of a Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire for use in Libyan Populations

Objectives: The Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) is an English language based tool used to assess sensory, affective and evaluative aspects of pain. The aim of this study was to develop a culturally valid version of SF-MPQ for use in Libya for pain patients. Setting: Data was collected at the Ibn Sina Hospital, Sirt, Libya. Design: The SF-MPQ was translated and back-translated into Arabic by 4 university teachers and 8 university students fluent in Arabic and English to generate an Arabic version of the SF-MPQ. A Libyan dialect equivalent was created following discussion with 4 physicians and 6 pain patients. A group of 40 pain patients (mean age 35.3 years) attending an outpatient Physiotherapy clinic in Sirt City completed the Libyan SF-MPQ. Results: It was found that the Libyan SF-MPQ scored 0.15 for Cronbach's alpha indicating poor internal reliability. SFMPQ descriptors "Shooting" and "Gnawing" were problematic during translation and only three words "Throbbing", "Cramping" and "Tiring-Exhausting" met criterion for content validity. Intensity scores for sensory descriptors of pain chosen by the 40 patients was high and scores for affective descriptors low. Conclusions: The Libyan SF-MPQ had poor internal reliability suggesting that further development of the tool is needed. Nevertheless, this first version of the Libyan SF-MPQ will be of value for health care professionals, especially as the intensity of pain in the population of Libyan patients was high. The findings of this research emphasise the need for sociallyoriented research on cultural attitudes towards reporting of pain.

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