Abstract
The Fibromyalgia Survey Questionnaire (FSQ) was self-administered by a sample of 207 Italian individuals with obesity to screen for fibromyalgia (FM). We aimed to investigate the inter-rater reliability and the agreement in the detection of FM symptomatology between the self-administered FSQ and the clinical interview conducted by a rheumatologist. All the patients were divided randomly into two groups (group A and group B): a rheumatologist first interviewed patients of group A and after 48 h, the patients completed the self-report FSQ. Patients of group B first completed the FSQ and 48 h later were interviewed by a rheumatologist. The agreement between the measurements was good with the Bland-Altman analysis showing low bias scores for the two subscales of the FSQ. Results showed that 33% of the sample satisfied the criteria for a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. The FSQ is a self-reporting measure that showed substantial reliability providing fast screening for FM symptomatology.
Highlights
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a syndrome with unclear etiopathogenesis, characterized by chronic widespread pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and many other symptoms that significantly worsen quality of life (Bazzichi et al, 2020)
The objective of our study was to calculate the inter-rater reliability and the agreement between the Italian translation of the self-administered Fibromyalgia Survey Questionnaire (FSQ) and the clinical interview conducted by a rheumatologist, in detecting the symptomatology of FM in a sample of Italian patients with obesity and generalized pain
Cohen’s κ was run to determine if there was an agreement between the FSQ and the clinical interview conducted by a rheumatologist, in satisfying the criteria 1 and 2 for FM
Summary
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a syndrome with unclear etiopathogenesis, characterized by chronic widespread pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and many other symptoms that significantly worsen quality of life (Bazzichi et al, 2020). 62–73% of patients with FM are overweight or obese (Yunus et al, 2002; Neumann et al, 2008; Okifuji and Hare, 2015). A higher body mass index (BMI) seems to be positively correlated with disability (Yunus et al, 2002; Creed, 2020), physical dysfunction, tender point count, pain sensitivity, and sleep disturbances; but it is negatively correlated with quality of life, tenderness threshold, physical strength, and flexibility (Neumann et al, 2008; Okifuji et al, 2010). Research on individuals affected both by obesity and FM is still in its infancy
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