Time to Complete Legacy Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Patients with Lumbar Decompression

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are used to capture the true extent of postoperative improvement. Use of lengthier and repetitive PROMs can increase question burden on patients. This study aims to determine whether the length of time to complete (TTC) legacy PROMs has an impact on scores after lumbar decompression.

A surgical database was retrospectively reviewed for patients who underwent primary, single-level lumbar decompression from 2013 to 2020. Demographic and perioperative characteristics were collected. Physical function (PF) was measured by 12-Item Short Form (SF-12), 12-Item Veterans RAND (VR-12), and Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) and was collected preoperatively and postoperatively. TTC was calculated as the difference between start and ending times for each instance of survey completion. Improvements for PROMs and comparison of TTC between SF-12/VR-12 and PROMIS PF were evaluated using a t-test. Correlation between TTC and PROM scores was evaluated using the Pearson correlation. Impact of TTC on postoperative PROM scores was evaluated using linear regression.

A total of 216 patients, of which 68.1% were men, were included with a mean age of 45.8 years. Mean postoperative TTC for SF-12 and VR-12 was significantly longer than preoperative values (all P < 0.05). No notable difference in TTC was demonstrated for PROMIS PF. TTC PROMIS PF was significantly shorter than SF-12 and VR-12 from 12 weeks through 1 year (all P < 0.050). A low-strength negative correlation of TTC with SF-12 and VR-12 was observed at the preoperative, 6-week and 1-year timepoint whereas PROMIS PF had a low-strength positive correlation with TTC preoperatively and at 6 months (all P > 0.05).

Time spent completing PROMIS PF did not markedly differ postoperatively, but SF-12 and VR-12 required a longer TTC than PROMIS PF. Although insightful to patient improvement, SF-12 and VR-12 may increase the question burden placed on patients to complete surveys in a timely manner.