Reducing survey burden: Feasibility and validity of PROMIS measures in multiple sclerosis

Background: Patient-reported outcomes are important for clinical research and care, yet administering and scoringthe questionnaires requires considerable effort and time. The Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement InformationSystem (PROMIS) could considerably reduce administrative obstacles and lessen survey burden for participants.Objective: Assess the feasibility and validity of PROMIS, compared to commonly-used legacy measures for multiplesclerosis (MS).Methods: In this cross-sectional survey, 133 participants with confirmed MS completed legacy surveys and PROMISComputerized Adaptive Tests (CATs) for depression, anxiety, pain, fatigue and physical function. We conducted a multitrait,multi-method analysis and verified results with confirmatory factor analysis.Results: The correlations between PROMIS and the corresponding legacy measures were large (0.67 to 0.87). Themulti-trait, multi-method criteria were generally well met, providing good evidence of the validity of PROMIS measures.PROMIS surveys asked fewer questions and required substantially less time to complete than the legacy scales.Conclusions: Our results provide evidence of the construct validity of PROMIS for use with MS patients. Severalaspects of the PROMIS CATs made them an important resource, including: (a) less time was required to complete them;(b) missing data was reduced; and (c) the automatic scoring referenced the general population. Our findings support theuse of PROMIS in MS research and may have broader implications for clinical care, as well.