Pain Disability Index

Each of the 7 items is rated on a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 means no disability and 10 means total disability.

PDI results range from 0 to 70 where the higher the score, the greater the degree of disability and impact on life activities due to pain.

The PDI is used for initial evaluations and for monitoring pain relief effectiveness and response to other interventions.

In the 1990 study by Tait et al. into the psychometric properties of the PDI it was found that patients with high PDI scores reported:

• more psychological distress (P less than 0.001);
• more severe pain characteristics (P less than 0.001);
• more restriction of activities (P less than 0.001).

compared to patients with low PDI scores.

The PDI was found to be a reliable and valid brief measure of pain-related disability.

 Pollard CA. Preliminary validity study of the pain disability index. Percept Mot Skills. 1984; 59(3):974.

Tait RC, Pollard CA, Margolis RB, Duckro PN, Krause SJ. The Pain Disability Index: psychometric and validity data. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 1987; 68(7):438-41.

Tait RC, Chibnall JT, Krause S. The Pain Disability Index: psychometric properties. Pain. 1990; 40(2):171-182.

Chibnall JT Tait RC. The Pain Disability Index: Factor Structure and Normative Data. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 1994; 75: 1082-1086.