What pain assessment scales are usable in general population ? A systematic literature review of Cochrane library according to the PRISMA statement

Background: Pain is one of the most common symptom reported in general practice. For this purpose, one-dimensional and multidimensional pain scales have been developed to assess acute or chronic pain. There is no gold standard in pain assessment in general practice. This study aimed to list all pain scales studied for the general population.Method: A systematic review questioning Cochrane database, according to the PRISMA protocol, was conducted until February 2018. Only English articles assessing pain scales in general population were included. The bibliography of selected studies and recent systematics reviews had been examined to include additional articles in a second search.Results: On 1431 results found on Cochrane, 4 relevant articles were included. With the second search, 203 additional articles were detected and 84 were added. Finally, 88 articles were selected and 35 pain scales were found: 6 unidimensional-scales with 13 variants and 12 multidimensional scales with 4 variants.Discussion: Pain scales were different by explored dimensions and the number of item. Some of them are not studied in this current review by a lack of articles available on the database responding to eligibility criteria. Reliability data of available pain assessment scales were recently collected in a systematic review. It will be necessary to consider external validity data in further studies and to choose which pain scale is the most appropriate for a daily practice