Differences in patient and physician assessment of a dynamic patient reported outcome tool for chronic pruritus.
BACKGROUND
Chronic pruritus is a subjective symptom, mainly measured through patient reported outcomes. Our aim is to assess two different methods regarding the change of symptoms: a visual dynamic pruritus score (vDPS) documented by patients, and a numerical value (nDPS) documented by physicians.


METHODS
Inferential statistics and reliability analyses have been performed on data collected in 2013.


RESULTS
Data of 701 patients were analysed (45.6% males, 54.4% females, mean age 60 ± 16 years). The nDPS showed less extreme and generally lower values than the vDPS. There was a slight concordance between both methods; the highest concordance was seen for no/weak change and very good reduction.


CONCLUSIONS
The difference between patient and physician assessed same score points to an important bias in pruritus assessment which has to be taken into account especially in clinical trials. Though further studies are needed, the patient-based assessment seems to be less biased by a social desirability effect.
Department of Medical Informatics, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
F
F
Fritz
Institute for Health Services Research in Dermatology and Nursing, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Münster, Germany.
C
C
Blome
Institute for Health Services Research in Dermatology and Nursing, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Münster, Germany.
M
M
Augustin
Institute of Biostatistics and Clinical Research, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
R
R
Koch
Competence Center Chronic Pruritus, Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany.
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S
Ständer
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011537:Pruritus / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results