PRISM (Pictorial Representation of Illness and Self Measure)- a novel visual method to assess the global burden of illness in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVE: For patients with chronic illnesses the global burden of illness is a crucial health measure hitherto neglected in research studies and clinical practice. We tested the application and validity of PRISM (Pictorial Representation of Illness and Self-Measure), a novel visual method for assessing the burden of illness, in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
METHOD: PRISM was applied in a cross sectional sample of 60 patients with SLE. Correlations were assessed between a quantitative measure derived from PRISM (Self-Illness Separation-SIS) and sociodemographic factors, measures of disease activity, damage, physical and psychological disability variables, as well as coping resources.
RESULTS: The PRISM task was understood by all but one patient, and was in every instance completed in less than 3 minutes. SIS correlated with SF-36 physical health, coping resources as assessed by Sense of Coherence (SOC), and age, but not with disease activity or damage. In multiple regression analyses, independent contributions to SIS were observed for SF-36 physical component scale (contributing 12% of the variance). SOC (10%) and age (14%).
CONCLUSION: PRISM is a new non-verbal measure to assess burden of illness. As in previous studies, PRISM was well accepted and understood by patients with SLE, quick to complete, and yielded meaningful information consistent with that in earlier research work.