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Considerations in Selecting, Collecting, and Interpreting Outcome Measures for Symptom Science in Oncology
1Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Outcomes Research Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, Maryland.
Objectives:
To review recent literature about the considerations, challenges and tradeoffs when selecting and interpreting symptom measures in patients diagnosed with cancer.
Method:
A narrative review of peer-reviewed literature, relevant theory, and international consensus guidance relevant to the measurement of symptoms using patient-reported outcomes, performance-based, instrumented, and clinician-reported measures.
Results/Conclusions:
Theoretical, psychometric, operational and study design considerations influence symptom instrument selection decisions in observational studies, clinical trials (both supportive care trials and therapeutic trials of anticancer therapies), and population surveillance. Multiple well-validated single symptom and multisymptom measures exist to measure cancer and cancer-treatment related symptoms.
Implications For Nursing Practice:
Exploration of how contrasting measurement approaches can yield complementary insights into the symptom experience and the effectiveness of symptom management strategies remains an underdeveloped area of cancer symptom science.
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