Supporting Research in Pain Management for Veterans and Military Service Members
Supporting Research in Pain Management for Veterans and Military Service Members

Pain Management Collaboratory Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) Measures

Measuring Potential Impacts of the Spread of the Coronavirus

Description of Instrument

A patient-reported measure of pandemic impact was recently developed by the National Institutes of Health – Department of Defense – Department of Veterans Affairs Pain Management Collaboratory (PMC) (Coleman et al., 2020). The 5-item PMC COVID-19 measure assesses five potential domains of pandemic impact: access to healthcare, social support, finances, ability to meet basic needs, and mental or emotional health. Two additional items assess infection status (personal and household) and hospitalization. The PMC COVID-19 measure uses structured responses with a three-point scale for COVID-19 infection status and four-point ordinal rank response for all other domains. It is currently being utilized in a number of pragmatic PMC clinical trials. The measure’s developers recommend individualized adaptation and scoring as appropriate to the needs of specific studies (Coleman et al., Under Revision).

References

Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pragmatic clinical trial participants, Brian C. Coleman, Natalie Purcell, Mary Geda, Stephen L. Luther, Peter Peduzzi, Robert D. Kerns, Karen H. Seal, Diana J. Burgess, Marc I. Rosen, John Sellinger, Stacie A. Salsbury, Hannah Gelman, Cynthia A. Brandt, Robert R. Edwards, Contemporary Clinical Trials, Volume 111, December 2021, 106619. 

Coleman BC, Kean J, Brandt CA, Peduzzi P, Kerns RD. Adapting to disruption of research during the COVID-19 pandemic while testing nonpharmacological approaches to pain management. Transl Behav Med. 2020 Oct 8;10(4):827-834. PMID: 32885815.