Quality of Life Scale for Pain

If you feel chronic pain, it's probably taking a toll on your quality of life. That's true whether your pain is due to cancer, shingles, arthritis, injury, or any other cause. A quality of life scale is one tool that can help your doctor assess your pain. This same scale can help you and your doctor monitor improvement, deterioration, or treatment-related complications.

Who Developed the Quality of Life Scale for Pain?

The Quality of Life Scale: A Measure of Function for People With Pain was developed by the American Chronic Pain Association (ACPA).

How Is the Quality of Life Scale for Pain Used?

When you first seek treatment for pain, completing this pain questionnaire provides your doctor a baseline of your pain. It shows how pain affects you in several ways:

• Your ability to work
• Your ability to socialize
• Your ability to exercise
• Your ability to perform household chore
• Your mood

Numbers on the Quality of Life Scale for Pain

You're asked to rank your quality of life on a scale of zero (non-functioning) to 10 (normal quality of life). For example:

0 Stay in bed all day

Feel hopeless and helpless about life

4 Do simple chores around the house

Minimal activities outside of home two days a week

7 Work/volunteer for a few hours daily (or perform home responsibilities)

Can be active at least five hours a day

Can make plans to do simple activities on weekends

10 Go to work/volunteer each day (or perform daily home responsibilities)

Normal daily activities each day

Have a social life outside of work

Take an active part in family life

Your doctor may ask you to repeat the Quality of Life Scale during the course of your treatment. It will help your health care team evaluate how well your treatment plan is working and determine if it needs to be revised.

The Quality of Life Scale for Pain Is One Tool to Manage Your Pain

The Quality of Life Scale is one tool your doctor uses to help manage your pain. A Pain Diary is another tool that enables your health care provider to profile your pain and manage it. For the pain diary, you're asked to log where the pain is, how severe it is, what you were doing when it started or worsened, and whether you used medicine or other treatments.

Treating chronic pain can be a challenge. Help your doctor help you by providing an accurate picture of your pain and its impact on your life from one visit to the next.