Toward Ensuring Health Equity: Readability and Cultural Equivalence of OMERACT Patient-reported Outcome Measures.

Journal Article (Journal Article;Review)

OBJECTIVE: The goal of the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) 12 (2014) equity working group was to determine whether and how comprehensibility of patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) should be assessed, to ensure suitability for people with low literacy and differing cultures. METHODS: The English, Dutch, French, and Turkish Health Assessment Questionnaires and English and French Osteoarthritis Knee and Hip Quality of Life questionnaires were evaluated by applying 3 readability formulas: Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid grade level, and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook; and a new tool, the Evaluative Linguistic Framework for Questionnaires, developed to assess text quality of questionnaires. We also considered a study assessing cross-cultural adaptation with/without back-translation and/or expert committee. The results of this preconference work were presented to the equity working group participants to gain their perspectives on the importance of comprehensibility and cross-cultural adaptation for PROM. RESULTS: Thirty-one OMERACT delegates attended the equity session. Twenty-six participants agreed that PROM should be assessed for comprehensibility and for use of suitable methods (4 abstained, 1 no). Twenty-two participants agreed that cultural equivalency of PROM should be assessed and suitable methods used (7 abstained, 2 no). Special interest group participants identified challenges with cross-cultural adaptation including resources required, and suggested patient involvement for improving translation and adaptation. CONCLUSION: Future work will include consensus exercises on what methods are required to ensure PROM are appropriate for people with low literacy and different cultures.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Petkovic, J; Epstein, J; Buchbinder, R; Welch, V; Rader, T; Lyddiatt, A; Clerehan, R; Christensen, R; Boonen, A; Goel, N; Maxwell, LJ; Toupin-April, K; De Wit, M; Barton, J; Flurey, C; Jull, J; Barnabe, C; Sreih, AG; Campbell, W; Pohl, C; Duruöz, MT; Singh, JA; Tugwell, PS; Guillemin, F

Published Date

  • December 2015

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 42 / 12

Start / End Page

  • 2448 - 2459

PubMed ID

  • 26077410

Pubmed Central ID

  • PMC4765994

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0315-162X

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.3899/jrheum.141168

Language

  • eng

Conference Location

  • Canada