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PEG Scale for Chronic Pain
Ultra-brief 3-item score of average pain intensity and interference with enjoyment of life and activity.
PEG Scale for Chronic Pain
Average pain in the past week
0 = no pain, 10 = pain as bad as you can imagine.
/10
Interference with enjoyment of life in the past week
0 = does not interfere, 10 = interferes completely.
/10
Interference with general activity in the past week
0 = does not interfere, 10 = interferes completely.
/10
Complete the fields above to see the result.
When to use
- Rapid, repeatable assessment of chronic pain intensity and functional/emotional interference in primary care or follow-up visits.
- Tracking response to analgesic or non-pharmacologic pain treatment over time.
Formula
PEG = mean of three 0-10 items: average Pain intensity, interference with Enjoyment of life, interference with General activity (each derived from the Brief Pain Inventory). Range 0-10.
Pearls and pitfalls
- Derived from, and correlates closely with, the longer Brief Pain Inventory severity and interference scales; developed in a 500-patient primary-care cohort and confirmed in an independent 646-veteran cohort.
- Not diagnostic on its own — pair with a clinical assessment of function and, where opioids are involved, with risk-of-misuse screening.
- The mild/moderate/severe labels reflect common 0-10 numeric-rating-scale convention, not thresholds established in the original PEG validation study, which reported reliability, construct validity, and responsiveness to change rather than fixed severity cut-points.