The complex nature of the pain experience suggests that measurements obtained by a numeric rating scale and other solitary dimension scales may not always show high concordance. Pain assessment is an essential part of pain management in lumbar spine pain as in other pain syndromes, but pain is subjectively perceived and a complex sensation. It is recognized that the patient’s perception of his/her pain is essential in making medical decisions and judging the results of treatment interventions. Many patients are unable to give a precise verbal description of their discomfort due to the lack of anatomical knowledge and/or possible difficulties in expressing their pain. It can be time consuming for the care provider to acquire a complete pain description during the assessment of the patient. Additionally, many errors in communication of pain are made with respect to location, type and intensity. This research study used a test-retest comparison design utilizing the Computerized Pain Assessment Tool (ComPAT) and the paper pain mapping (PPM) methods to measure pain. The aims of this papaer are to determine the validity and reliability of the ComPAT software program. The ComPAT is a multi-dimensional pain assessment tool that allows the clinician to assess the area, intensity, type, and depth of pain that a patient is experiencing. One hundred fifty-nine patients participated in the test-retes of the ComPAT compared to the PPM. They then received moist heat and manual therapy and then performed the ComPAT and PPM. Analysis of data was performed using the repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Also, descriptive statistics were used to describe the subjects. In order to show agreement between the types of pain both pre and post interventions, percent agreement evaluation was performed along with the Chi-square. The results show that the ComPAT is a valid and reliable tool in measuring pain area, intensity, depth and type.
