Abstract

Background: Pain hypervigilance is usually increased among patients with chronic pain and it has been associated with poor pain related outcomes and higher disability. The Pain Vigilance and Awareness Questionnaire (PVAQ) has been widely employed to assess pain hypervigilance in patients with several pain disorders, including fibromyalgia. However, this scale has never been validated for its use in Chile. Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of the Chilean version of the PAVQ. Method: Women with fibromyalgia (N = 119) attended in a clinic in Santiago (Centro Médico San Joaquín, Red UC Christus) completed the PVAQ while they were waiting to be seen by their rheumatologists and two weeks later during a telephone interview. Results: The fit of several structural models previously reported in the literature were compared using confirmatory analyses. Namely, a one factor model, a two-factor model (Esteve et al., 2013; Wing et al., 2011; Roelofs et al, 2002) and a three-factor model (McWilliams & Asmundson, 2001) were compared. In addition, because the total PVAQ scores are usually calculated, we also tested several bifactorial models including a general factor representing the total score, and specific subfactors. The two-factor and three-factor unidimensional models did no present a good fit. A bifactorial model comprising a general factor (GF) and three specific correlated subfactors presented the best fit (χ 2 /gl= 1.63; RMSEA= 0.073; CFI= 0.98 and TLI=0.97). The three specific factors were similar to those previously reported in the literature: Passive awareness (PA), Active vigilance (AV), and Intrusion (IN). The resulting questionnaire comprised 15 items, as item 16 was deleted because it presented low weights in all the factors. The general factor as well as three subscales showed a good internal consistency (GF α= .88, PA α= .90, AV α= .82 and IN α= .51). Test-retest reliability was excellent (GF ICC = .94, CI .91-.95; PA ICC = .84, CI .75-.89; AV ICC = .67, CI 48-.79; and IN ICC = .84, CI .76-.89). Conclusions: The Chilean version of the PAVQ present a structure similar to those found in previous studies as well as adequate internal consistence and test-retest reliability.