Table 1:

Descriptions of Pain Intensity Indices Provided to Stakeholders during the Interviews

Pain Intensity Index	Definition/Explanation
Average pain intensity over a week	If we take many ratings of a patient’s pain intensity during a week, add them up and then divide by the number of ratings, this would give us an average of a patient’s pain during that week.
Level of pain intensity when it is at its worst during a week	If we take many ratings of a patient’s pain intensity during a week, we could see what a patient’s highest pain level was. This would indicate the level of pain intensity when it was at its worst.
Level of pain intensity when it is at its least during a week	If we take many ratings of a patient’s pain intensity during a week, we could see what a patient’s lowest pain level was. This would indicate the level of pain intensity when it was at its least.
Amount of time patient spends with no or low pain during a week	This refers to how much of the time during the week a patient didn’t feel any or felt very little pain. That is, if we were to take many ratings of a patient’s pain intensity, we could figure out the amount of time during a week that a patient had no pain or almost no pain.
Amount of time patient spends in high pain during a week	If we were to take many ratings of a patient’s pain intensity during the week, we could figure out the amount of time when a patient had ratings of pain intensity at very high levels.
How much pain intensity fluctuates or changes during a week	If we take many ratings of a patient’s pain intensity during a week, we can get a sense of how much a patient’s pain intensity varies from moment-to-moment or day-to-day over the week. That is, whether the intensity is more or less constant or how much a patient’s pain fluctuates (that is, goes up and down).
Amount of unpredictability of pain levels during a week	This refers to the degree to which a patient’s pain intensity changes for reasons that the patient can’t identify. If a patient doesn’t know when and why his/her pain changes, then a patient’s pain levels are unpredictable.

Note: Shown here are the definitions and explanations provided to clinicians and clinical trialists. For patients, any reference to “a patient[‘s]” in the table was replaced with “you” or “your”.