Intercultural translation and application of the German version of King’s Parkinson’s disease pain questionnaire in fluctuating Parkinson’s disease

Background. Pain is common in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and impairs quality of life. The King’s PD pain questionnaire (KPPQ) is a standardized, reliable, and valid self-administered questionnaire for screening of pain in PD. We developed a linguistically validated German version of the KPPQ and applied it to a cohort with fluctuating PD. Methods. The interculturally adapted German translation was performed according to internationally accepted procedures in coordination with the authors of the original publication but without further psychometric validation. After final approval by all translators and original authors, the German version was then tested for feasibility and comprehension in 30 PD patients. After final adaption, the German KPPQ together with the German quantitative KPPS were applied to an independent cohort of fluctuating PD patients within the VALIDATE-PD study. Results. The use of the German version of the KPPQ in clinical practice or in the VALIDATE-PD study revealed no significant problems of understanding. Sufficient datasets were available from 47 patients with motor fluctuations (24 (51%) males, 23 (49%) females; median (interquartile range (IQR)) age: 65 (58-73) years; median (IQR) Hoehn and Yahr stage: 2.5 [2-3]). Total pain was reported by 43 (92%) of participants with a median number of 4 (IQR: 2-5) pain subtypes. We did not observe any associations of total pain frequency, neither with gender nor with other demographic or clinical parameters. Conclusions. The German version of the KPPQ is recommended as a questionnaire for assessing the frequency of pain and its subtypes in PD in clinical studies and/or routine care.