SynthesisQuality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation2025
The mere-measurement effect of patient-reported outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Adherence, Acceptability, and Sexual Health Outcomes of the Odeya App-Based Intervention for Sexual Distress in Women With Endometriosis: Randomized Controlled Mixed Methods Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Trial
- Long-term stability of perceived childhood trauma in individuals with borderline personality disorder.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Effect of depression screening on future depressive symptoms in a persistent pain population: mediation analysis.Pain reports · 2026Article
- Protégé Effect for Behavior Change: Does Teaching Digital Stress Solutions to Others Reduce One's Own?Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- National scale up of PROM based monitoring after joint replacement in Germany.npj health systems · 2026Article
- Expectation framing in psychotherapy: effects of approach- and avoidance-oriented video interventions on help-seeking intentions.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Integrating Positive Outcomes into Healthcare: Validation of the Pleasurable Affect Levels Scale.Patient preference and adherence · 2026Article
- Gamble game: a pilot mixed-methods study on board games for adolescent gambling prevention in the school setting.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Adherence to Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Measures: A Null-Results Review of Measure-Related Effects on Response Rates in Routine Care.Patient preference and adherence · 2026Review
- Expanding the Focus on Work Factors in an Outpatient Setting: Does a Nudge of Patients and Clinicians have an Effect on Return-to-Work and Benefits? Findings from the NSAC Nudge Multicentre Randomised Controlled Trial.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Restraint reduction during psychiatric intensive care: a controlled bi-phasic time series evaluation of a culture change intervention.BMJ open quality · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThe mere-measurement effect is the phenomenon in which subjects exposed to measurements have their perceptions and/or behaviors on the inquired topic affected simply through the act of responding. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are increasingly used to assess patient perspective and quality of life in clinical trials and different health care settings. This systematic literature review aims to assess what is currently known about the mere-measurement effect of PROs.
methodsA systematic literature review and meta-analysis was conducted. We included studies that provided evidence on perceptual or behavioral changes in patients as a result of exposure to questionnaire items assessing PROs. All adult participants were included regardless of demographics. Any study design was considered eligible for inclusion. The databases MEDLINE [PubMed], CINAHL [Ebsco], Web of Science and ScienceDirect were searched.
resultsThe search resulted in 636 articles which led to a final extraction of nine. Overall, seven of the nine articles reported a significant main effect, i.e. presence of the mere-measurement effect. For the meta-analysis, thirteen different interventions were included. There was a one-directional, positive and significant overall risk ratio of 1.17 [CI95% 1.04;1.30].
conclusionThis systematic review found significant potential for the mere-measurement effect to shape respondents' behaviors or perceptions for the better, opening the door to the possibility of engineering PROs to serve as a subtle intervention. Future considerations and directions for research are discussed.
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Registered trials
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.