DOI: 10.3886/icpsr39573
title: Incorporating Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Symptom Measures into Primary Care Practice [Methods Study], United States, 2014-2017
title: Archival Version

description: Sometimes patients don't tell their doctors about all of their symptoms. For example, they may not tell their doctors about having low energy or not sleeping well. These symptoms can be signs of a health problem. Knowing about symptoms can help doctors find ways to help patients feel better. Using patient-reported outcomes (PRO) surveys is one way for doctors to collect this information. These surveys ask how health problems and their treatments affect patients from the patients' point of view. Filling out PRO surveys helps patients tell their doctors how they are feeling.
The research team wanted to know if giving doctors information from their patients about symptoms at the start of an office visit would lead to the patients feeling better. The team collected information from patients about their symptoms using PRO surveys. The surveys tracked five common symptoms: sleep problems, pain, anxiety, depression, and low energy.
description: "To determine whether providing patient-reported outcomes (PRO) data to primary care doctors improves five patient symptoms: sleep disturbance, pain, anxiety, depression, and fatigue. A secondary aim was to determine whether providing PROMIS scores to clinicians increased symptom documentation, symptomspecific clinician actions, and patient satisfaction. Last, this study explored the correspondence between PROMIS subscales and brief non-PROMIS legacy measures.
description: The research team conducted a randomized controlled trial to see whether providing primary care doctors with a visual display of PRO data about the severity of patient symptoms improved patients' sleep disturbance, pain, anxiety, depression, or fatigue.
Input from a patient advisory panel helped researchers develop the PRO data collection and results display. Primary care doctors helped identify patients to participate in the study.
The study included 300 patients from primary care clinics in one large urban area. About 70% of patients were female. Of the patients in the study, 49% of patients were African American, 45% were white, and 6% were from other races. Patients were 18 years and older and receiving care from a primary care doctor. The research team included patients in the study who reported moderate to severe symptoms of sleep disturbance, pain, anxiety, depression, or fatigue, indicated by a score of 4 or more on a scale from 0 to 10, with higher scores indicating worse symptoms, on a screening questionnaire.
The research team randomly assigned patients to either an intervention group or a control group. Patients in both groups completed a Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) short form survey for each of the five symptoms before the start of their visits with their primary care doctors. When a doctor met with a patient in the intervention group, the doctor received a piece of paper with a visual display of the patient's symptom severity. The display showed a graphic of the patient's symptom severity scores and instructions for interpreting the scores. When a doctor met with a patient in the control group, the doctor did not receive the visual display. In this group, doctors provided usual care to patients.
Three months after the initial visit, 256 patients completed the PROMIS survey again. Patients also completed a survey measuring patient discussion of symptoms with doctors during visits, patient desire for treatment of symptoms, and patient satisfaction with care for their symptoms. The research team also reviewed patient medical records to see whether doctors documented patients' symptoms and any resulting clinical actions.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Incorporating Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Symptom Measures into Primary Care Practice [Methods Study], United States, 2014-2017
description: 300 adult patients with moderate to severe symptoms of sleep disturbance, pain, anxiety, depression, or fatigue.