Pain self-efficacy questionnaire and its use in samples with different pain duration time

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The pain self-efficacy questionnaire has been frequently used in several languages, but its use is limited to chronic pain. This study aimed to i) evaluate the properties of the pain self-efficacy questionnaire among Brazilians with different durations of pain occurrence; ii) present a new proposal for estimation of the overall self-efficacy belief score; and iii) compare such score among different pain duration time. METHODS: A total of 1,155 adults (79.0% women; 38.6±10.8 years) participated, 337 had no pain, 386 reported pain for less than 3 months, 253 reported pain for more than 3 months with a recurrent pattern, and 179 reported continuous pain for more than 3 months. The confirmatory factor analysis was performed to check the pain self-efficacy questionnaire unifactorial model good-fit. The pain self-efficacy questionnaire invariance was tested in independent samples using multigroup analysis. We proposed the calculation of the self-efficacy belief score from the factor score obtained in the confirmatory factor analysis. The score was compared among groups (ANOVA, alpha=5%). RESULTS: After inserting four correlations between errors of items, the pain self-efficacy questionnaire model shows to be fit to the sample (X2/df=7.059; CFI=0.978; GFI=0.964; RMSEA=0.072). The model was invariant between independent samples. Lower self-efficacy belief was found among participants with pain for less than three months (p<0.05). Pain self-efficacy questionnaire and its use in samples with different pain duration time