Reliability of the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire to assess patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain

The aim of this study was to determine the reliability of the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire, Dutch version (LSQ-DV), to assess chronic pain patients. The study was designed as test-retest. The setting was the general rehabilitation centre. There were 51 patients over 18 years of age, suffering from chronic nonmalignant musculoskeletal pain. The main outcome measures were weighted K of test and retest data on the nine questions of the LSQ-DV, and Spearman correlation coefficient (p) of the test and retest data on the mean LSQ score. The results were as follows: weighted K varied from 0.34 to 0.82: eight of the nine weighted K values were moderate to almost perfect whereas one ('family life') was low. The p value of the mean score was 0.74. The conclusion was that the reliability of the LSQ-DV in patients with chronic nonmalignant pain treated in a rehabilitation setting proved moderate to good for most domains, though low for the 'family life' domain. We recommend using the LSQ-DV in clinical practice and research, although the 'family life' score has to be interpreted with caution.