Table 5.

Theme 4: Establishing a hierarchy of pain outcome instruments.

Key Issues Raised by RespondentsNo. Respondents (denominator = 36)
Important for systematic reviewers

  • To reduce bias we need a systematic method to inform which pain outcome instrument to choose when more than 1 is reported in a trial

4
Different methods have been used to develop hierarchies for pain outcome instruments in OA

  • Methods include expert opinion and responsiveness of pain outcome instruments in OA trials

  • What other criteria than responsiveness should be considered?

3
What is the patient perspective on this hierarchy?

  • Could use concept mapping approach to get input from patients

2
Important to distinguish the hierarchy of constructs from hierarchy of instruments2

  • OA: osteoarthritis.