What's in a question? Survey do's and don'ts

Question 1

What is the definition of:
- Patient Reported Outcome (PRO)
- Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROM)

Answer 1

• Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) → a health outcome directly reported by the patient who experienced it (different to an outcome reported by someone else, such as a physician-reported outcome). PROs can’t be objectively measured.
• Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROM) → standardized, validated surveys. Used to study how you feel about your health status in areas such as pain, mobility, ability to perform daily tasks.

Question 2

What is the difference between a Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) and a Patient Reported Outcome Measure (PROM)?

Answer 2

PROs provide reports from patients about their own health, quality of life or functional status associated with the health care or treatment they have received. PROMs are tools and/or instruments used to report PROs.

Question 3

How are PRO(M)s validated?

Answer 3

• Whether the application of PRO(M)s can be applied in another population, another language, another format.
• A new situation results in a new validation of a PRO.

Question 4

What are four important factors that determine whether a PRO(M) is validated?

Answer 4

• Valid → measures what it appears to measure.
• Reliable → has no (systematic) measurement errors.
• Responsiveness → ability to measure change over time
• Interpretability → (clinical) meaning of the score

Question 5

What are important considerations that help to determine which questionnaire can be used?

Answer 5

• General
• Specific
• What are you going to measure?
• When?
• How often?
• Validated vs unvalidated
• Free?
• Registration?
• Which version?
• Scoring?
• Population norms?