The Helsinki Chronic Pain Index

Dear homepage visitor,

The Helsinki Chronic Pain Index or the HCPI is a validated, reliability tested and responsiveness tested pain questionnaire that is completed by the dog owner. The test consists of 11 easy to answer questions that each have 5 possible answers, from where the owner picks one that is best describing their dog the previous week. There are questions on how the dog moves and on the dog’s mood and demeanor. All questions can be easily answered by any owner with any type of dog shed, house or apartment.

We are happy to inform you that the Helsinki Chronic Pain Index is now easily up-loadable from this site. At this time it is available in Finnish language, Swedish, English, and Dutch (They will all be uploaded soon). We have to remind you though, that the HCPI has been validated only in Finnish at this time (references below) but it has been used in several languages and we are hoping to have the other language versions validated and reliability tested soon as well.

There are 2 pdf files for each HCP language, one for the vet and one for the owner. We think that the owner should not see the veterinarian’s version, since it is not good if owners themselves know how we calculate it. The reason that we give it to the owners without the points is that we feel that some owners either exaggerate or understate pain so that the “number” becomes big or small enough! However, if you want to use it with the points for the owner, so that they can report the sum back to you, this is totally possible.

We do not want to tell them that it is a “pain” questionnaire either; more point out that you want them to evaluate the dog and how it is at the moment. Therefore we do not have the word “pain” in the title either. So the owners will only get a questionnaire where the questions and answers are (This is here called the: HCPI_English_for_owners.pdf)

Please use the index for any study that you feel would benefit from it. We have used it as a weekly or monthly follow-up for dog owners in many treatment outcome studies, such as before and after cruciate ligament surgeries, artificial joint surgeries, green-lipped mussel supplementation, in Zeel, omega-3 fish oil, analgesic drugs studies etc. etc. It is also used by practitioners around the world, in evaluating chronic canine pain medication or nutraceutical use for osteoarthritis and other chronic pain patients, for pre- and post surgery and acupuncture, for rehabilitation follow-up etc.

If you want to help us translate it into other languages, please contact us, as it has to be done in a right “psychometric” way.

Hope it serves you as well as it has served us!

References

• Hielm-Björkman A, Kuusela E, Liman A, Markkola A, Saarto E, Huttunen P, Leppäluoto J, Tulamo R-M, Raekallio M. A: Are there methods for assessing chronic osteoarthritic pain in dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) (2003), 222, 1552-1558
• Hielm-Björkman A, Rita H, Tulamo R-M: Psychometric testing of the Helsinki chronic pain index by completion of a questionnaire in Finnish by owners of dogs with chronic signs of pain caused by osteoarthritis.  American Journal of Veterinary research 2009; 70: 727-734.