With ageing of the population and physical inactivity in industrialized society, musculoskeletal (MS) problems have become an important disease burden, affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. They account for 7% of all the diagnoses presenting to primary care in Hong Kong. Although the spectrum of MS problems is broad, ranging from the common muscle strain, tendinitis and degenerative conditions to the more serious inflammatory joint diseases, they share the common characteristics of causing pain and disability. Chronic MS problems are the most common cause of severe chronic pain which impairs mental and physical well-being. The Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 (GBD 2013) showed that from 2005 to 2013, the major contributor to the global increase of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) is MS problems. Four of the top ten causes of disability in China are MS problems, namely low back pain, neck pain, osteoarthritis and other musculoskeletal problems. MS problems also significantly affect the psychosocial health of the patients' families and care givers. Current clinical management of chronic MS problems focus mainly on pain control with medications, but the outcomes are often unsatisfactory. There is increasing concern on serious side effects from the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), and the risk of death and dependency from opioids in the treatment of chronic pain. More effective interventions are needed in order to reduce the suffering, disability and service burden from MS problems.

The goal of medical care is to improve or restore health. The patient's perspective need to be taken into consideration in assessing the outcome of care. Patient reported outcome (PRO) is defined as "any report of the status of a patient's health condition that comes directly from the patient, without interpretation of the patient's response by a clinician or anyone else". Pain is a commonly used PRO in clinical practice. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is becoming a popular PRO measure in clinical trials. HRQOL is a multidimensional concept that measures a person's subjective perceived effect on how health has affected his/her ability to live a fulfilling life, both physically and mentally. A variety of HRQOL instruments are available for different purposes, which can be generic or disease-specific. There is a large body of evidence on the psychometrics and clinimetrics of using HRQOL measures in assessing the severity of symptoms, monitoring general health and wellbeing, promoting patient-clinician communication, evaluating treatment/intervention outcomes and informing clinical decision-making. However, HRQOL is rarely measured in normal clinical practice because it requires a paradigm shift from objective to subjective outcome measures, and strategies to overcome implementation barriers of time, workload, costs and patient's burden.

The choice of instrument is critical for successful implementation of measurement of HRQOL in normal clinical practice. It should be valid, reliable, applicable to most if not all patients, short and easy to use, and meaningful. The EuroQol-5 dimension (EQ-5D) questionnaire developed by the EuroQol Group is a generic HRQOL measure that satisfies all these criteria. It consists of a descriptive system of 5 HRQOL dimensions (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression) and a 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS) for global health rating. It can be completed within a few minutes either by self-completion or by interview. The original EQ-5D has 3 response options to each item (EQ-5D-3L), which was modified to the EQ-5D-5L with 5 response options to each item to improve responsiveness and sensitivity9. The EQ-5D-5L has a combination of 3125 health states9. Each health state can be converted to a composite utility (preference) score from 0 (death) to 1 (perfect health), with a scoring algorithm derived from population-based valuation. The EQ-5D has been adapted to many populations with population-specific scoring algorithms available in the United States, Canada, Europe and China. A Chinese (Hong Kong) version of the EQ-5D-5L has been validated and the Hong Kong population specific EQ-5D-5L scoring algorithm has been developed from a population-based valuation study. The EQ-VAS is a 100 mm vertical scale ranging from 0 to 100, with 0 corresponding to "the worst imaginable health" and 100 indicating "the best imaginable health". Both the utility and rating scale scores are easy-to-interpret composite indicators that can be used to monitor the change in HRQOL over time. The EQ-5D-5L has been shown to be valid, reliable and sensitive in patients with MS problems internationally and in Hong Kong.

Current evidence on incorporating EQ-5D in routine clinical practice

The investigators did a systemic review from Medline and Embase databases using keywords related to HRQOL and routine clinical practice. Routine measurement of HRQOL in normal clinical practice has been used in selected patient populations, mostly in oncology and specific surgical settings in the United Kingdom (UK) and Sweden. In the UK, as a government initiative to compare service providers' performance, HRQOL has been routinely measured by the EQ-5D before and after NHS funded elective hip or knee replacement, varicose vein and inguinal hernia surgeries since 2009. This changes the paradigm of evaluation of effectiveness of care from the clinician to the patient's perspective in order to improve accountability. It also enables patients to make informed choice on service providers. In Sweden, the Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Register has recorded the EQ-5D utility score and a VAS pain score of each patient since 2002, which has demonstrated that the overall PRO of total hip replacement surgery is satisfactory, leading to a mean increase of 0.36 in EQ-5D utility score. Data on routine measurement of HRQOL by the EQ-5D or other measures in busy outpatient settings are lacking, and the investigators could not find any study on routine measurement of HRQOL in normal clinical practice in Chinese populations.

Related work done by the research team This research team has more than 20 years of experience in HRQOL research with a focus on the application of HRQOL in the evaluation of health and health services and in clinical trials. Our previous studies showed the impairment in HRQOL in people with chronic joint problems was comparable to those with chronic heart diseases and HRQOL was an important determinant of health service utilization in our Chinese population. The investigators also found that HRQOL is a responsive outcome measure of the effectiveness of interventions and quality of care in Hong Kong. Co-investigator Professor Paul Kind is one of the original authors of EQ-5D and a senior member of the EuroQoL group. He has done a lot of work on the cross-cultural adaptation of the EQ-5D and electronic administration of the EQ-5D. The investigators have developed the EQ-5D-5L utility scoring algorithm specific to the Hong Kong general population. Our pilot study on 227 Chinese patients with MS problems in a busy spine specialist outpatient clinic in Hong Kong supported the feasibility, acceptability and psychometric performance of the Chinese (Hong Kong) version of EQ-5D-5L. A limitation of our pilot study that administered the EQ-5D-5L in paper form was that the scores could not be available to the attending doctors in real-time.

In this study the investigators have developed an electronic platform for the administration, scoring and reporting of EQ-5D-5L data in normal outpatient clinics, which can make the results available to the attending doctors in real-time. The investigators have technical expertise and experience in the establishment of interactive electronic to collect PRO data with the computer or a mobile devise. The investigators have experience of using an electronic platform for the administration of questionnaire and collection of both patient reported and clinical data from multiple study sites in a health services project for low income families. Our team has also developed an interactive Mobile App to promote exercise and to collect data on usage.