Reliability of a self-reported questionnaire assessing the use of cannabis products to treat chronic pain

Reliability of a self-reported questionnaire assessing the use of cannabis products to treat chronic pain | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Reliability of a self-reported questionnaire assessing the use of cannabis products to treat chronic pain Edeltraut Kröger, Clermont E. Dionne, Zoumana Cheick Bérété, Malek Amiri, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8050715/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background : Cannabis-based products are increasingly used worldwide for chronic pain. However, there is a lack of reliable instruments assessing cannabis exposure. Objective : To develop a questionnaire measuring the use of cannabis to manage chronic pain and assess its reliability. Method : A 24-item questionnaire assessing pain conditions, the type of cannabis products that were used, the methods of use, the concentration of main cannabinoids, and the use of other pain therapies was developed. An expert committee was convened to enhance the content validity of the questionnaire, to improve it, and a longitudinal survey was conducted to test the test-retest reliability of the final version. A two-round survey of 158 participants with chronic pain was conducted between November 2023 and January 2024. Kappa and weighted kappa coefficients were calculated to assess the agreement between the responses of the two rounds. According to the criteria of Landis and Koch, items with a kappa ≥ 0.61 were considered as having a high reliability. Results : The average age of participants was 38 years and the proportion of females was 53.5%. Most of the items assessing the use of cannabis products yielded a high reliability (kappa ≥ 0.61). Items with moderate reliability (0.41 ≤ Kappa < 0.61) included the type of pain and the type of cannabinoids used. Conclusion : The results suggest that the questionnaire developed in this study is a reliable tool for assessing cannabis use in patients with chronic pain in clinical or research settings. Epidemiology chronic pain medical cannabis questionnaire test-retest reliability Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files 2.CanQuestEN.pdf English version of the medical cannabis use questionnaire Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8050715","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":541177045,"identity":"5a8096c8-823e-4610-bf67-c9ba729a390d","order_by":0,"name":"Edeltraut Kröger","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Faculty of pharmacy, Université Laval","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Edeltraut","middleName":"","lastName":"Kröger","suffix":""},{"id":541177046,"identity":"ddec04b5-71f1-4e59-936d-9237b9d38fad","order_by":1,"name":"Clermont E. 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However, there is a lack of reliable instruments assessing cannabis exposure.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eObjective\u003c/strong\u003e: To develop a questionnaire measuring the use of cannabis to manage chronic pain and assess its reliability.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMethod\u003c/strong\u003e: A 24-item questionnaire assessing pain conditions, the type of cannabis products that were used, the methods of use, the concentration of main cannabinoids, and the use of other pain therapies was developed. An expert committee was convened to enhance the content validity of the questionnaire, to improve it, and a longitudinal survey was conducted to test the test-retest reliability of the final version.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA two-round survey of 158 participants with chronic pain was conducted between November 2023 and January 2024. Kappa and weighted kappa coefficients were calculated to assess the agreement between the responses of the two rounds. According to the criteria of Landis and Koch, items with a kappa ≥ 0.61 were considered as having a high reliability.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eResults\u003c/strong\u003e: The average age of participants was 38 years and the proportion of females was 53.5%. Most of the items assessing the use of cannabis products yielded a high reliability (kappa ≥ 0.61). Items with moderate reliability (0.41 ≤ Kappa \u0026lt; 0.61) included the type of pain and the type of cannabinoids used.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConclusion\u003c/strong\u003e: The results suggest that the questionnaire developed in this study is a reliable tool for assessing cannabis use in patients with chronic pain in clinical or research settings.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Reliability of a self-reported questionnaire assessing the use of cannabis products to treat chronic pain","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-10 04:53:51","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8050715/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"d031014d-1175-481e-8742-4ddf6ce96eb3","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 10th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":57695722,"name":"Epidemiology"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-11-10T04:53:51+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-10 04:53:51","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8050715","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8050715","identity":"rs-8050715","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}