Affiliations: [a] Department of Translational Medicine and Surgery, PhD Program in Neuroscience, University of Milan Bicocca, Carate Brianza, Italy | [b] Studio Fisio Bonetti, Roma, Italy | [c] Centro di Fisioterapia e Medicina dello Sport Kinesi, Trento, Italy | [d] Department of Rehabilitation Science, College of Health and Human Services, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA | [e] Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, PT, Italy
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Roberto Meroni, Department of Translational Medicine and Surgery, Program in Physical Therapy, Istituti Clinici Zucchi, University of Milan Bicocca, Piazza Madonnina 1, 20841 - Carate Brianza (MB), Italy. Tel.: +39 0362986448; E-mail:roberto.meroni@unimib.it
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the
psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Pain Catastrophizing
Scale (PCS-I) in patients with chronic low back pain. METHODS: In a cross sectional study a total of 150 subjects with
chronic low back pain were included. The Italian translation of the PCS was
administered to all subjects. The properties of the Italian version of the
PCS were explored by a Rasch analysis. RESULTS: The PCS-I, by means of few modifications, fitted the Rasch
model and passed the independent t-test for a unidimensional scale. The
response categories for item 2 ``I fell I can't go on'' needed to be
collapsed from 4 to 3 levels. Only the item 7 ``I keep thinking to of other
painful events'' showed fit residual that exceeded the chosen thresholds of
± 2.5. No Differential functioning (DIF) was observed for age, sex,
marital status, BMI and smoking. CONCLUSION: The Italian version of PCS, with the purposed
modifications, seems to reflect a unidimensional construct of Pain
Catastrophizing. The scale seemed to be quite robust across age, sex,
marital status, BMI and smoking. Targeting of the scale was moderate. A raw
score to metric conversion was proposed.
