Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30456714›Full record

ArticleQuality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation2019

Interpretation and use of patient-reported outcome measures through a philosophical lens.

Jae Yung Kwon, Sally Thorne, Richard Sawatzky

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Article in Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
15citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

15 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. The argument-based approach to validity: theory, assumptions, evidence, and consequences.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2026
    Article
  2. Response shifting: a qualitative meta-synthesis on response shift.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2026
    Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Commentary: Without Values, Complexity is Reduced to Mathematics.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2025
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. A philosophical perspective on the development and application of patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs).Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2022
    Article
  10. Response shift in results of patient-reported outcome measures: a commentary to The Response Shift-in Sync Working Group initiative.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2021
    Article
  11. Implications of response shift for micro-, meso-, and macro-level healthcare decision-making using results of patient-reported outcome measures.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2021
    Article
  12. Using feedback tools to enhance the quality and experience of care.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2021
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Review
  15. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Jae Yung KwonSchool of Nursing, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. jaeyung.kwon@nursing.ubc.ca.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0336-7348
Sally ThorneSchool of Nursing, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Richard SawatzkySchool of Nursing, Trinity Western University, Langley, Canada.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeAs patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) increasingly become key outcome indicators in health care, there has been growing concern about the potential negative consequences that could result when interpretations are being made to inform clinical and policy decisions. Therefore, we explored theoretical issues, assumptions, and consequences of using PROMs from a philosophical point of view.

methodsOur analysis of the literature was informed by Gadamerian hermeneutics, which emphasizes the dialectical processes that occur during interpretation, to provide insights as to how different users interpret and use standardized questions about health and quality of life.

resultsWe structured our consideration according to three tenets of using PROMs: (1) the use of PROMs involves the interpretation of contextual elements; (2) interpretation of PROMs is an ongoing dialectical interaction; and (3) the use of PROMs involves openness and reflexivity. These findings suggest that hermeneutics provides a useful approach to examining the complexities of measuring patient-reported outcomes by attending to the perspectives of different users (e.g., patients, clinicians, administrators, and policy-makers) at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels and the broader socio-historical and economic situation.

conclusionBecause PROMs can have different meanings and are used for different purposes, we propose that hermeneutics be used as a lens to ask reflexive questions about the problems of measurement and open a pluralistic dialogue with respect to the way we use PROMs and the interpretations we make of the findings that derive from our studies.

Indexed as

Health StatusHermeneuticsPatient Reported Outcome MeasuresQuality of LifeHumansConsequencesHermeneuticsMeasurementPatient-reported outcome measures

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.