Use of Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) in Clinical Care: A Community-Based Allied Health Setting

Measuring patient health outcomes is important for effective healthcare. Community-based allied health care provides services for people with complex and often deteriorating conditions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if a single outcome measure was applicable across a multidisciplinary team of eight allied health professions to measure the impact of the team. The chosen measure was the EuroQoL, 5-dimension, 5-level (EQ-5D-5L) which we compared to changes in discipline specific functional and quality of life measures.

Any adult attending community-based services could participate. Both measures were administered at the start of care and repeated 3 months later or at time of discharge. Disciplines and outcome measures included were: psychology (DASS-21); occupational therapy (COPM); social work (ORS); dietetics (Qualcibo); podiatry (wound depth); physiotherapy (6 minute walk test); exercise physiology (Quick¬DASH); and speech pathology (AusTOMs).

Improvements in discipline specific measures were seen in occupational therapy; social work; dietetics; podiatry; and speech pathology (swallow impairment, swallow distress). There was no statistical difference in mean EQ-5D-5L utility score and visual analogue scale. At 3-month follow-up, less participants reported moderate, severe/extreme problems or inability to complete tasks for mobility, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression dimensions but were not significant.

Results suggest the EQ-5D-5L was unresponsive to the improvement demonstrated with discipline-specific measures in a community-based allied health setting over a 3-month time frame.