In recent years, several studies have pointed out the importance of pain-related fear in the development and maintenance of chronic pain. An important instrument for measuring pain-related fear in the context of low back pain is the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK). Recently, a version of this questionnaire has been developed for administration among the general population (TSK-G). To determine the factor structure of the TSK-G, data from a random sample of the Dutch general population were studied separately for people who had had back complaints in the previous year, and people who had been without back complaints. For both groups the TSK-G appeared to consist of one, internally consistent, factor of 12 items. The one-factor TSK-G also appeared valid after comparison with scores on measures of catastrophizing and general health status.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Cronbach's alpha of the 17-item TSK-G was .75 for the sample with low back complaints and .72 for the sample without low back complaints.
REFERENCES
Buer, N., and Linton, S. J. (2002). Fear-avoidance beliefs and catastrophizing: Occurrence and risk factor in back pain and A.D.L in the general population. Pain 99(3): 485–91.
Clark, M. E., Kori, S. H., and Brockel, J. (1996). Kinesiophobia and chronic pain: Psychometric characteristics and factor analysis of the Tampa Scale. Am. Pain Soc. Abstr. 15: 77.
Crombez, G., Vlaeyen, J. W., Heuts, P. H., and Lysens, R. (1999). Pain-related fear is more disabling than pain itself: Evidence on the role of pain-related fear in chronic back pain disability. Pain 80(1–2): 329–339.
Fritz, J. M., George, S. Z., and Delitto, A. (2001). The role of fear-avoidance beliefs in acute low back pain: Relationships with current and future disability and work status. Pain 94(1): 7–15.
Goubert, L., Crombez, G., Van Damme, S., Vlaeyen, J. W. S., Bijttebier, P., and Roelofs, J. (2004). Confirmatory factor analysis of the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia: Invariant two-factor model across low back pain patients and fibromyalgia patients. Clin. J. Pain 20(2): 103–110.
Hanley, J. A., and McNiell, B. J. (1982). The meaning and use of the area under the Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve. Radiology 143: 29–36.
Joreskog, K. G., and Sorbom, D. (2001). WINDOWS LISREL. Version 8.54. Scientific Software International, Chicago.
Kori, S. H., Miller, R. P., and Todd, D. D. (1990). Kinesiophobia: A new view of chronic pain behavior. Pain Manage. Jan/Feb 35–43.
Lethem, J., Slade, P. D., Troup, J. D., and Bentley, G. (1983). Outline of a fear-avoidance model of exaggerated pain perception: I. Behav. Res. Ther. 21(4): 401–408.
Linton, S. J., Buer, N., Vlaeyen, J., and Hellsing, A. L. (2000). Are fear-avoidance beliefs related to the inception of an episode of back pain? A prospective study. Psychol. Health 14(6): 1051–1059.
Linton, S. J., Vlaeyen, J., and Ostelo, R. (2002). The back pain beliefs of health care providers: Are we fear-avoidant? J. Occup. Rehabil. 12(4): 223–232.
McCracken, L. M., Zayfert, C., and Gross, R. T. (1992). The Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale: Development and validation of a scale to measure fear of pain. Pain 50(1): 67–73.
Nachemson, A. (1992). Newest knowledge of low back pain. Clin. Orth. Relat. Res. 279: 8–20.
Peters, M. L., Vlaeyen, J. W. S., and Kunnen, A. M. W. (2002). Is pain-related fear a predictor of somatosensory hypervigilance in chronic low back pain patients? Behav. Res. Ther. 40: 85–103.
Philips, H. C. (1987). Avoidance behaviour and its role in sustaining chronic pain. Behav. Res. Ther. 25(4): 273–279.
Picavet, H. S., and Schouten, J. S. (2003). Musculoskeletal pain in the Netherlands: Prevalences, consequences and risk groups, the DMC(3)-study. Pain 102(1–2): 167–178.
Picavet, H. S. J., van Gils, H. W. V., and Schouten, J. S. A. G. (2000). Klachten van het bewegingsapparaat in de Nederlandse bevolking. Prevalenties, consequenties en risicogroepen. Bilthoven: RIVM. Report No. 266807 002.
Picavet, H. S. J., Vlaeyen, J. W. S., and Schouten, J. S. A. G. (2002). Pain catstrophizing and kinesiophobia: Predictors of chronic low back pain. Am. J. Epidemiol. 156(11): 1028–1034.
Roelofs, J, Goubert, L, Peters, ML, Vlaeyen, JWS, Crombez, G. (2004). The Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia: Further examination of psychometric properties in patients with chronic low back pain and fibromyalgia. Eur. J. Pain 8(5):495–502.
Severeijns, R., van den Hout, M. A., Vlaeyen, J. W., and Picavet, H. S. (2002). Pain catastrophizing and general health status in a large Dutch community sample. Pain 99(1–2): 367–376.
Sieben, J. M., Vlaeyen, J. W., Tuerlinckx, S., and Portegijs, P. J. (2002). Pain-related fear in acute low back pain: The first two weeks of a new episode. Eur. J. Pain London, England 6(3): 229–237.
SPSS. (2001). SPSS for Windows. Version 11.0.1. SPSS,Chicago.
Sullivan, M. J. L., Bishop, S. R., and Pivik, J. (1995). The pain catastrophizing scale: Development and validation. Psychol. Assess. 7: 524–532.
Swinkels Meewisse, E. J., Swinkels, R. A., Verbeek, A. L., Vlaeyen, J. W., and Oostendorp, R. A. (2003). Psychometric properties of the Tampa Scale for kinesiophobia and the fear-avoidance beliefs questionnaire in acute low back pain. Manual Ther. 8(1): 29–36.
Van Damme, S., Crombez, G., Bijttebier, P., Goubert, L., and Van Houdenhove, B. (2002). A confirmatory factor analysis of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale: Invariant factor structure across clinical and non-clinical populations. Pain 96(3): 319–324.
Vlaeyen, J. W. S., and Crombez, G. (1998). The modified Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia: for its use in non-pain samples. Unpublished Dutch/Flemish translation.
Vlaeyen, J. W. S., Kole Snijders, A. M. J., Boeren, R. G. B., and van Eek, H. (1995a). Fear of movement/(re)injury in chronic low back pain and its relation to behavioral performance. Pain 62(3): 363–372.
Vlaeyen, J. W. S., Kole Snijders, A. M. J., Rotteveel, A. M., Ruesink, R., et al. (1995b). The role of fear of movement/(re)injury in pain disability. J.Occup. Rehabil. 5(4): 235–252.
Vlaeyen, J. W., and Linton, S. J. (2000). Fear-avoidance and its consequences in chronic musculoskeletal pain: a state of the art. Pain 85(3): 317–332.
Waddell, G. (1998). The back pain revolution. Churchill Livingstone, London.
Waddell, G., Newton, M., Henderson, I., Somerville, D., and Main, C. J. (1993). A Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ) and the role of fear-avoidance beliefs in chronic low back pain and disability. Pain 52(2): 157–168.
Zee, K., and Sanderman, R. (1993). Het meten van gezondheidstoestand met de RAND-36. Een handleiding. Groningen: Noordelijk Centrum voor Gezondheidsvraagstukken.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment for kindly providing the data for this study. This study was supported by Grant No. 904-59-108 of the Council for Medical and Health Research of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (MW-NWO), and by Grant No. 5214 of the National Fund for Public Mental Health.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Houben, R.M.A., Leeuw, M., Vlaeyen, J.W.S. et al. Fear of Movement/Injury in the General Population: Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties of an Adapted Version of the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia. J Behav Med 28, 415–424 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-005-9011-x
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-005-9011-x