RESPONSE OPTION INTERPRETATION TO INFORM PRO MEASURE DESIGNS: A MULTINATIONAL STUDY
Author(s)
Michael Pham, MS, PharmD1, A Simon Pickard, PhD2, Ole Marten, PhD3, Tessa Peasgood, PhD4, Zhihao Yang, PhD5, Maja Kuharic, PhD6;
1University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy, Chicago, IL, USA, 2University of Illinois, Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA, 3School of Public Health, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany, 4University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom, 5Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China, 6Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, CHICAGO, IL, USA
1University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy, Chicago, IL, USA, 2University of Illinois, Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA, 3School of Public Health, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany, 4University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom, 5Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China, 6Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, CHICAGO, IL, USA
OBJECTIVES: The objective was to examine how individuals tend to recall symptom experiences over the past week and whether it differed between the United Kingdom (UK), the United States (U.S.), Germany, and China.
METHODS: A cross-sectional online survey of adult participants from the U.S. (n=348), the UK (n=312), Germany (n=285), and China (n=314) were asked: "When thinking about how often you experience something over the past week (like feeling exhausted or anxious), which way do you naturally think about it?" Participants chose the answer that best reflected how they conceptualized symptom burden between several options: “Number of days”, “Percentage of waking hours”, “Impact on daily life”, “number of episodes”, and “It depends” and optionally left comments. A Chi-square test was performed to assess cross-country differences.
RESULTS: The proportions of individuals thinking of symptoms in terms of “Number of days” and “Number of episodes” were similar across countries (30.7-34.0%, p-value = 1, and 14.4-17.9%, p-value = 1, respectively). Chinese respondents preferred "percentage of waking hours" compared to Western respondents (22.0% vs. 4.2-4.9%, p-value < 0.05), who preferred "impact on daily life" (41.7-44.9% vs. 27.7%, p-value < 0.05). The answer “It depends” showed low endorsement (1.8-5.4%, p-value = 0.344). Chinese respondents preferred time proportion, while Western respondents preferred functional impact.
CONCLUSIONS: While response patterns were largely similar across Western countries, Chinese respondents showed a preference for time-based symptom conceptualization over functional impact. Such differences may affect how individuals translate experiences into frequency-based responses and their cross-cultural comparability, and thus warrant consideration in multinational PROMs development.
METHODS: A cross-sectional online survey of adult participants from the U.S. (n=348), the UK (n=312), Germany (n=285), and China (n=314) were asked: "When thinking about how often you experience something over the past week (like feeling exhausted or anxious), which way do you naturally think about it?" Participants chose the answer that best reflected how they conceptualized symptom burden between several options: “Number of days”, “Percentage of waking hours”, “Impact on daily life”, “number of episodes”, and “It depends” and optionally left comments. A Chi-square test was performed to assess cross-country differences.
RESULTS: The proportions of individuals thinking of symptoms in terms of “Number of days” and “Number of episodes” were similar across countries (30.7-34.0%, p-value = 1, and 14.4-17.9%, p-value = 1, respectively). Chinese respondents preferred "percentage of waking hours" compared to Western respondents (22.0% vs. 4.2-4.9%, p-value < 0.05), who preferred "impact on daily life" (41.7-44.9% vs. 27.7%, p-value < 0.05). The answer “It depends” showed low endorsement (1.8-5.4%, p-value = 0.344). Chinese respondents preferred time proportion, while Western respondents preferred functional impact.
CONCLUSIONS: While response patterns were largely similar across Western countries, Chinese respondents showed a preference for time-based symptom conceptualization over functional impact. Such differences may affect how individuals translate experiences into frequency-based responses and their cross-cultural comparability, and thus warrant consideration in multinational PROMs development.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2026-05, ISPOR 2026, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Value in Health, Volume 29, Issue S6
Code
PCR206
Topic
Patient-Centered Research
Topic Subcategory
Instrument Development, Validation, & Translation
Disease
No Additional Disease & Conditions/Specialized Treatment Areas