Reliability of Tactile Tools for Pain Assessment in Blind Athletes

Health professionals have numerous visual and reporting scales at their disposal to assess pain. In recent years new tactile tools have been created (Pain Texture Scale and Tactile Pain Scale). This study validates these scales compared with the Numerical Rating Scale in 36 blind athletes who were assessed before and after competitions in the World Paralympics Games organized by the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) in Quebec, Canada. The reliability of these scales was analyzed through the intraclass correlation coefficient. Results showed good reliability for the Tactile Pain Scale and satisfactory reliability for the Pain Texture Scale.