How to Assess Patient’s Outcome?

Abstract

This chapter illustrates the variety of patient’s reported outcomes and how to choose the best possible one for each research. Patient’s reported outcome is an enormously important evaluation for clinical orthopedic research, because it is directly reflected by the patient’s “subjective” feeling whose improvement is the ultimate goal of our clinical care in general. However, each outcome measure has specific areas of assessment, and the researchers should select one or more which appropriately address their predetermined research questions. In order to design a clinically relevant and informative research study, an appropriate selection of optimal outcome measures is of utmost importance. The choice should be primarily done in consideration of the study purpose. Frequently used outcome measures in the specific research area would be preferable because its result can be compared to previous reports. Language and/or financial problems might limit the selection of the outcome measure especially in non-English speaking countries. Researchers should be aware of the reliability, validity, and responsiveness of their selected outcome measures, and it should be confirmed if they are acceptable for each specific research.