Pain Management Health Center

Font Size
A
A
A

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.

WebMD Medical Reference

Edited by Beth Roybal on January 11, 2007
Advertise on Fox News Channel, FOXNews.com and FOX News Radio Jobs at FOX News Channel. Internships at FOX News Channel (now accepting Fall interns).
Terms of use. Privacy Statement. For FOXNews.com comments write to foxnewsonline@foxnews.com; For FOX News Channel comments write to comments@foxnews.com
© Associated Press. All rights reserved.
SMARTMONEY ® © 2006 SmartMoney. SmartMoney is a joint publishing venture of Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and Hearst SM Partnership. All Rights Reserved.
All quotes delayed by 20 minutes. Delayed quotes provided by ComStock.
Historical prices and fundamental data provided by Hemscott, Inc.
Mutual fund data provided by Lipper. Mutual Fund NAVs are as of previous day's close.
Earnings estimates provided by Zacks Investment Research.
Upgrades and downgrades provided by Briefing.com.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. © 2006 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. All market data delayed 20 minutes.
About WebMD|Terms of Use|Privacy Policy|Sponsor Policy|Site Map|Link to Us|Careers|