Development and Psychometrics of a Short-form Pharmaceutical Care-specific Measure for Quality of Life

Background The validated patient-reported outcomes measure of pharmaceutical therapy for quality of life (PROMPT-QoL) contains 43-items, and can be too lengthy for some applications. Objectives To develop a brief version called the PROMPT, and test its psychometric properties. Setting Four public hospitals in Bangkok, Thailand. Method Secondary analysis of three databases used to develop and evaluate the original PROMPT-QoL. Items for the short-form PROMPT were selected based on expert and patient evaluations of content and importance, and lack of redundancy. All domains of the original version are represented in the PROMPT. Main outcome measures Psychometric properties (internal consistency and test-retest reliability, criterion, convergent and discriminant validity, and responsiveness), and indicators of practicality (e.g., administration time, missing data). Results Analyses of the PROMPT and its domain subscales demonstrated good internal consistency and fair-to-excellent test-retest reliability. Correlations between the original and short-form, overall and by domain, were high. Expectations for convergent and discriminant validity were met as correlations between the PROMPT and generic health-related quality of life measures (WHOQoL-BREF domains and summary scores of the SF-12v2) were modest (< 0.40). Based on data from a trial of pharmaceutical care, the PROMPT short-form was very responsive to reductions in medication related problems. Administration time for the PROMPT is estimated to be about 5 min, and across all datasets used, no missing data were found amongst the 16 items of the PROMPT. Conclusion The 16-item PROMPT appears to be a practical, reliable, valid, and responsive instrument to identify patient's drug-related needs and to assess the humanistic impact of patient-centered pharmaceutical care.