Establishing Clinical Cut-points on the Pediatric PROMIS-pain Interference Scale in Youth with Abdominal Pain

Pain is a common presenting complaint in youth seeking medical care and can be debilitating. As such, it is important to understand the impact of pain on functioning using a clinically sensitive approach. The Pediatric PROMIS-Pain Interference (PPPI) scale was developed to measure pain-related interference. However, its clinical validity has not been thoroughly established in clinical populations.  The current study sought to develop clinical cut-points and investigate the validity of the PPPI in a large sample of youth presenting to gastroenterological care with abdominal pain symptoms. Convergent validity of the PPPI was investigated. Quartile and tertile groupings of the PPPI were calculated and compared to the healthy population cut-points on clinical outcomes via multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs). There was good evidence of convergent validity.  The tertile solution was superior in classifying different levels of pain-related outcomes as compared to other cut-points.  The tertile solution suggested the following PPPI groupings: minimal (≤ 51), moderate (52-59), and severe (≥ 60). Results suggest the PPPI is a valid measure with clinically meaningful cut-points to assess pain-related interference in youth. Read more.