Exercise and Nutrition
Effects of diet and exercise on pain and osteoarthritis
There are literally dozens of methods to assess pain, most being simple generic Likert scales where the individual is asked to rate their pain on a scale between 1 and 5 or 1 and 10. There are others that that evoke a specific set of pressures on the skin and have the individual describe the severity of discomfort or pain. There are others with very specific populations and diseases in mind, such as the Western Ontario and McMasters Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) which, as its name implies, is intended specifically to assess pain from arthritis (Bellamy et al, Journal of Rheumatology 15(12): 1833-1840, 1988).