Purpose of this study was to examine the discriminative properties of the three-item PEG questionnaire for grading impact of non-dental orofacial pain.286 consecutive patients with orofacial pain of non-dental origin filled out the PEG questionnaire and Graded Chronic Pain Scale (GCPS, version 2). Correlation between the PEG and GCPS scores, internal consistency of the PEG, and differences between groups were examined statistically (level of significance: p≤0.05).The mean(±SD) age of the 213 patients (158 female) who were included in the analysis was 43.1(±16.7) years. Of the sample, 48.8%(n=104) had some degree of orofacial pain-related disability (mean overall characteristic pain intensity: 51.2±23.2, average overall PEG score: 4.3±2.7, average PHQ-9 score: 8.2±6.5). No significant differences were found between the sexes for any score. Number of disability points (GCPS) and overall PEG score showed a strong and positive correlation (Spearman’s ρ=0.77, p<0.001). The internal consistency of the PEG questionnaire was high (Cronbach's α=0.86).Assuming three different levels of orofacial pain-related disability (mild, moderate, and severe), we obtained overall accuracy of 69.01%, with high specificity for mild and severe cases. The three PEG groups (mild/moderate/severe) differed from each other significantly regarding their clinical grading according to the GCPS (Kruskal-Wallis, p<0.001).Analysis of the receiver operating characteristic curve showed that a single cut-off value of 3.8 points in the PEG score yields adequate validity (sensitivity=0.91; specificity=0.78). The proposed two cut-off points (upper=7, lower=4) yield low sensitivity for the upper threshold.The three-item PEG questionnaire is suitable for grading impact of non-dental orofacial pain.
Copyright © 2021 International Association for the Study of Pain.

Author