General health of patients presenting for osteopathy care: a consecutive
sampling design using the PROMIS© Global Health measure.
Abstract
Rationale, aims and objectives Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is
comprised of the physical, social and mental health domains. A wide
variety of single and multi-item measures of HRQoL are available. The
PROMIS© V1.2 Scale – Global Health is a 10-item measure covering the
physical, social and mental health domains. The aim of the study was to
explore the use of the PROMIS© V1.2 Scale – Global Health in a patient
cohort seeking care for a musculoskeletal care. Method Patients an
osteopathy clinic (Melbourne, Australia) were invited to complete the
PROMIS© V1.2 Scale – Global Health along with other health demographics
prior to their initial consultation. The PROMIS© V1.2 Scale – Global
Health was scored as per the instructions. Inferential and correlation
statistics were used to explore associations with patient age, gender
and complaint chronicity. Results Three hundred and ninety-five (n=395)
completed the PROMIS© V1.2 Scale – Global Health scale. The Physical
Health mean T-score was 46.04 (+/- 6.06) and the Mental Health mean
T-score was 49.38 (+/- 7.26). Age and complaint chronicity were not
significantly different for both the Physical and Mental health
T-scores. Physical health mean T-scores were lower for female patients
compared to males with a medium effect size (p<0.01, d=0.31).
Conclusion(s) Physical health scores were lower than the American
general population norm. However, this is to be expected to given the
patient cohort sought care for a musculoskeletal complaint. The PROMIS©
V1.2 Scale – Global Health has the potential to be utilised as a
patient-reported outcome measure for those patients seeking
musculoskeletal care.