A preliminary report on the Chinese Cancer Pain Assessment Tool (CCPAT) : reliability and validity

Background: This study was to establish the validity and reliability of the Chinese Cancer Pain Assessment Tool (CCPAT) for Chinese patients with cancer pain in Hong Kong. Methods: It was a quasi-experimental study. The CCPAT was tested for its reliability and validity by 26 cancer pain patients and 26 chronic non-cancer pain patients. McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ), with its established reliability and validity, was used as the criterion tool for comparison. Results: An internal consistency of 0.88 and the inter-rater reliability of 0.96 were obtained for the CCPAT. The Spearman's Rho correlations between the functional and emotional dimensions of the CCPAT and the present pain intensity of the MPQ positively correlated. This indicated a satisfactory concurrent validity. Discriminant validity was performed with MANOVA. The CCPAT was able to predict 80.8% of the subjects correctly as cancer pain patients from the cancer pain group. Conclusions: The constructed CCPAT is a valid and reliable cancer pain assessment tool in a Chinese context. The developed CCPAT is the first of its kind for the Chinese community in Hong Kong. It is anticipated that the results can provide the health care professionals with the best possible instrument and indicator. The CCPAT also lays the theoretical construct for the professionals with a better understanding of the experience of cancer pain from a multidimensional perspective.School of Nursin