Date of Award
Summer 2026
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Psychology
College
College of Science and Health
First Advisor
Leonard Jason
Abstract
Chronic pain is a debilitating symptom that often remains under-researched and poorly treated, particularly for those with multisystemic conditions. This study explored the shared and distinct experiences of chronic bodily pain across four multisystemic illnesses: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS), and Long COVID. Comparative exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and invariance testing were used to examine commonalities and differences in underlying pain experiences for those with the above diagnoses as well as healthy controls based on their responses to pain items from the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire-1 (DSQ-1). A total of 3,724 participants were included: 2,403 with ME/CFS, 270 with MS, 242 with PPS, 299 with Long COVID, and 210 healthy controls. The data were collected from various countries, including the United States, Great Britain, Norway, Spain, Japan, and the Netherlands. Using this pre-collected data, the following research questions were examined: What latent patterns of pain do individuals in chronic illness groups (ME/CFS, PPS, MS, Long Covid) and healthy controls experience? How similar or different are the factors related to pain across these diagnostic groups? This study found that those with ME/CFS, PPS, and MS experienced 2 invariant factors of pain. Factor 1 compromised flu-like pain symptoms, while Factor 2 compromised musculoskeletal pain symptoms. Long COVID at 2 weeks failed the Bartlett’s test, while Long COVID at 6 months exhibited the same 2 factors as the other chronic illness groups, with the musculoskeletal factor contributing to a greater proportion of the variance. The healthy control group only exhibited one generalized factor of pain with loadings from all 9 DSQ pain items.
Copyright
Copyright © 2026 Suvetha Ravichandran
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Ravichandran, Suvetha, "Understanding Chronic Bodily Pain Across Multisystemic Illnesses: A Comparative Analysis using Exploratory Factor Analysis and Invariance Testing" (2026). Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University. 82.
https://via.library.depaul.edu/theses-dissertations/82