Measuring the Impact of Diabetes Through Patient Report of Treatment Satisfaction, Productivity and Symptom Experience

• DOI: 10.1007/s11136-005-1624-6
• Publication Date: 2006-03-17T18:26:41Z
• Authors: Meryl Brod; Soren E. Skovlund; Kim U. Wittrup-Je...
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Denmark; Focus Groups; Middle Aged; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Patient Satisfaction; Surveys and Questionnaires; Outcome Assessment, Health Care; Diabetes Mellitus; Quality of Life; Humans; Female; Aged

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.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.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.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.