A Short Version of the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (PASS‐20): Preliminary Development and Validity

TLDR

Research shows that fear and avoidance of pain are linked to suffering and disability in chronic pain, and effective measurement tools are essential for studying these relations. The study aims to develop and validate a short form of the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (PASS‑20). The PASS‑20 was constructed by selecting items with high variance, intercorrelation, and reliability to measure pain‑specific fear and anxiety responses. The PASS‑20 demonstrates strong internal consistency, reliability, and construct validity, with minimal loss of validity after item reduction, indicating it retains adequate psychometric properties and offers efficient screening for chronic pain patients.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Research has shown significant relations between fear and avoidance of pain and the suffering and disability of chronic pain. Effective measurement tools have formed the foundation for studying these relations. METHODS: The present article describes the initial development and validation of the PASS‐20, a short form version of the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (PASS). Like the original inventory, the PASS‐20 measures fear and anxiety responses specific to pain. Items were selected for the short version based on item variance, item intercorrelation and reliability analyses. RESULTS: The PASS‐20 shows strong internal consistency, reliability, and good predictive and construct validity. Item reduction appears to result in minimal shrinkage of validity correlations. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the results suggest that the short form retains adequate psychometric properties. Possible research and clinical implications for the PASS‐20 include more efficient screening during evaluations of patients with chronic pain, and use when the time or effort needed for the full version is prohibitive.