Measuring the impact of diabetes through patient report of treatment satisfaction, productivity and symptom experience.
OBJECTIVE
Diabetes is a common, debilitating chronic illness with multiple impacts. The impact on treatment satisfaction, productivity impairment and the symptom experience may be among the most important for patient-reported outcomes. This study developed and validated disease-specific, patient-reported measures for these outcomes that address limitations in currently available measures.


METHODS
Data was collected from the literature, experts and patients and a conceptual model of the patient-reported impact of diabetes was created. Item pools, based on the conceptual model, were then generated. The items were administered to 991 diabetes patients via a web-based survey to perform item reduction, identify relevant factor structures and assess reliability and validity following an a-priori analysis plan.


RESULTS
All validation criteria and hypotheses were met resulting in three new, valid measures: a 21-item Satisfaction Measure (three sub-scales: burden, efficacy and symptoms), a 30-item Symptom Measure and a 14-item Productivity Measure assessing both life and work productivity impairments.


CONCLUSIONS
This triad of measures captures important components of the multifaceted diabetes patient experience and can be considered as valid, viable options when choosing measures to assess patient-reported outcomes. Addressing these outcomes may assist researchers and clinicians to develop more patient-centered diabetes interventions and care.
The BROD GROUP, 219 Julia Avenue, Mill Valley, California 94941, USA. mbrod@thebrodgroup.net
Meryl
M
Brod
Soren E
SE
Skovlund
Kim U
KU
Wittrup-Jensen
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003718:Denmark; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires