PSYCHOSOCIAL ADJUSTMENT TO ILLNESS SCALE (PAIS-SR) IN A NORWEGIAN MATERIAL OF PATIENTS WITH FUNCTIONAL DYSPEPSIA, DUODENAL-ULCER, AND URINARY-BLADDER DYSFUNCTION - CLINICAL VALIDATION OF THE INSTRUMENT

Background: There is an increasing interest in the psychosocial impact of a disease, but few instruments available to measure it. Methods: The internal consistency and construct validity of the Norwegian translation of the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale (PAIS-SR) was examined in a total of 557 patients. Results: The seven dimensions of the psychosocial adjustment to medical illness from the original test were represented in the Norwegian translation. Psychologic distress, social environment, and vocational environment explained most of the variance. The instrument had high internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha coefficients of > 0.75 on six of seven subscales. The PAIS-SR differentiated between groups of patients with urologic and upper gastrointestinal disease and seemed to give meaningful and useful clinical data. Patients with functional dyspepsia (n = 97) had higher score on psychologic distress than the other groups, whereas patients with duodenal ulcer (n = 97) were significantly less affected in their social life than the other patients. Conclusions: The Norwegian translation of the PAIS-SR had high internal consistency, acceptable construct validity, and good discriminating validity.