Literature and development

of the PAIC 15 scala

In 2011, the EU-funded COST Action TD1005, chaired by Prof. S. Lautenbacher (University of Bamberg, Germany) and Prof. W. Achterberg (Leiden University, The Netherlands), started to develop a scale to measure pain in people with cognitive impairments (especially dementia).

In total, around 60 scientists from 16 European countries and from different disciplines (nursing, medicine, psychology, physiotherapy, and epidemiology) participated in this combined effort. In the period from 2011 to 2018, a large number of experimental and clinical studies were carried out in the different member countries of the COST Action. The aim of the studies was to extract from existing pain observation scales those items that are best suited to detect pain in people with dementia.

PAIC 15 in practice:

The video gives you an impression of how the PAIC 15 scale is used in an interdisciplinary way in a Dutch care facility to assess pain in dementia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj7rcr-CpFM

You can find more detailed information on the developmental process of the PAIC 15 scale and its psychometric properties below.

Developmental process and psychoemtric properties:

Corbett, A., Achterberg, W., Husebo, B., Lobbezoo, F., de Vet, H., Kunz, M., Strand l, Constantinou M, Tudose C, Kappesser J, de Waal M & Lautenbacher S. (2014). An international road map to improve pain assessment in people with impaired cognition: the development of the Pain Assessment in Impaired Cognition (PAIC) meta-tool. BMC neurology, 14(1), 229.

van Dalen-Kok, A. H., Achterberg, W. P., Rijkmans, W. E., Tukker-van Vuuren, S. A., Delwel, S., de Vet, H. C., Lobbezoo, F., de Waal, M. W. (2018). Pain Assessment in Impaired Cognition (PAIC): content validity of the Dutch version of a new and universal tool to measure pain in dementia. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 13, 25-34. doi:10.2147/cia.S144651

van Dalen-Kok, A. H., Achterberg, W. P., Rijkmans, W. E., de Vet, H. C., & de Waal, M. W. (2019). Pain assessment in impaired cognition: observer agreement in a long-term care setting in patients with dementia. Pain management, 9(5), 461-473. https://doi.org/10.2217/pmt-2019-0025

de Waal, M. W., van Dalen‐Kok, A. H., de Vet, H. C., Gimenez‐Llort, L., Konstantinovic, L., de Tommaso, M., Fischer, T., Lukas, A., Kunz, M., Lautenbacher, S., Lobbezoo, F., MCGuire, B.E., van der Steen, J.T., Achterberg, W.P. (2019). Observational pain assessment in older persons with dementia in four countries: observer agreement of items and factor structure of the Pain Assessment in Impaired Cognition. European Journal of Pain. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1484

Kunz M, de Waal M, Achterberg WP, Gimenez-Llort L , Lobbezoo F, Sampson EL, van Dalen-Kok AH, Defrin R, Invitto S, Konstantinovic L, Oosterman JM, Petrini L, van der Steen JT, Strand LI, de Tommaso M, Zwakhalen S, Husebo BS, Lautenbacher S (2019). The Pain Assessment in Impaired Cognition scale (PAIC-15): a multidisciplinary and international approach to develop and test a meta-tool for pain assessment in dementia. European Journal od Pain, https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1477

Kappesser J, Voit S, Lautenbacher S, Hermann C (2020). Pain assessment for cognitively impaired older adults: do items of available observer tools reflect pain‐specific responses?. European Journal of Pain, https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1536

Laekeman M (2020) Den Schmerz von Menschen mit Demenz erfassen – Pain Assessment in Impaired Cognition Scale (PAIC 15). Physiopraxis, 18(06): 52-53. DOI: 10.1055/a-1191-8688 www.thieme.de/physiopraxis

Giménez-Llort L, Bernal ML, Docking R, Muntsant-Soria A, Torres-Lista V, Bulbena A and Schofield PA (2020). Pain in Older Adults With Dementia: A Survey in Spain. Frontiers in Neurology https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2020.592366

Langner B (2021). Dem Schmerz auf der Spur. Schmerzassessment bei Demenz mit PAIC15. Pflegezeitschrift 74, no. 1, 54-56

Defrin R, Beshara H, Benromano T, Hssien K, Pick CG, Kunz M (2021). Pain behavior of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities coded with the new PAIC-15 and validation of its Arabic translation. Brain Sciences. 22;11(10):1254.

van der Steen JT, Westzaan A, Hanemaayer K, Muhamad M, de Waal MW, Achterberg WP. Probable pain on the Pain Assessment in Impaired Cognition (PAIC15) instrument: Assessing sensitivity and specificity of cut-offs against three standards. Brain Sciences. 2021 Jun 29;11(7):869.

Lobbezoo F, Lam XM, de la Mar S, van de Rijt LJ, Kunz M, van Selms MK. Faces of pain during dental procedures: reliability of scoring facial expressions in print art. Brain sciences. 2021 Sep 14;11(9):1207.

Lim SY, Lee SJ, Chang SO. Development of the Korean Version of the Pain Assessment Tool in Impaired Cognition (KPAIC-15) for Patients with Dementia: A Scale Development. Journal of Korean Gerontological Nursing. 2022 May 31;24(2):218-28

First applications in research:

Oudman E, van der Stadt T, Bidesie JR, Wijnia JW, Postma A. Self-Reported Pain and Pain Observations in People with Korsakoff’s Syndrome: A Pilot Study. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2023 Jul 14;12(14):4681.

Lautenbacher, S., Walz, A. L., & Kunz, M. (2018). Using observational facial descriptors to infer pain in persons with and without dementia. BMC geriatrics, 18(1), 88.

Oosterman, J. M., Traxler, J., & Kunz, M. (2016). The influence of executive functioning on facial and subjective pain responses in older adults. Behavioural Neurology, 2016.

Lautenbacher, S., Sampson, E. L., Pähl, S., & Kunz, M. (2016). Which facial descriptors do care home nurses use to infer whether a person with dementia is in pain?. Pain Medicine, 18(11), 2105-2115.

van der Steen, J. T., Sampson, E. L., Van den Block, L., Lord, K., Vankova, H., Pautex, S., … & de Vet, H. C. (2015). Tools to assess pain or lack of comfort in dementia: a content analysis. Journal of pain and symptom management, 50(5), 659-675.