The Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) for pain is a unidimensional measure of pain intensity in adults.
The NRS is a segmented numeric version of the visual analog scale (VAS) in which a respondent selects a whole number (0 to 10 integers) that best reflects the intensity of their pain.
The common format is a horizontal bar or line. Similar to the pain VAS, the NRS is anchored by terms describing pain severity extremes.
The pain NRS is a single 11-point numeric scale, with 0 representing one pain extreme (e.g., “no pain”) and 10 representing the other pain extreme (e.g., “pain as bad as you can imagine” and “worst pain imaginable”). Most commonly, respondents are asked to report pain intensity “in the last 24 hours” or average pain intensity.