Making results of patient-reported outcomes interpretable

Article type
Authors
Guyatt G1, Patrick D2
1McMaster University
2University of Washington
Abstract
Objectives:
To address the methods available for making patient-reported outcomes readily understandable to the audience of Cochrane Reviews.

Description:
Patient-reported outcomes include reports of symptoms, health-related quality of life and patient satisfaction, and often present unique challenges in interpretation. Many of those who use Cochrane Reviews will be unfamiliar with the instruments used to measure patient experience and they will find the significance of the differences expressed in natural units (e.g. “the pooled differences between intervention and control was five units on instrument X”) obscure. The challenge is compounded when several instruments using different units measure the same construct requiring standardized units for aggregation across studies.

Concepts that will be introduced include the minimal important difference (the smallest difference that would motivate a patient to use an intervention), the dichotomization of outcomes (e.g. proportion of patients who achieve a minimal important difference) and alternatives to the standardized mean difference as an approach to aggregating across different instruments measuring the same construct.

During the workshop issues will arise for discussion in breakout groups. At the end of each breakout sessions (5 to 10 min) each group will report back with the group’s conclusions. In addition, participants will answer questions prepared to establish understanding of the material presented.