Discrepancies between patient-reported outcomes and clinician-reported outcomes in chronic venous disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and peripheral arterial occlusive disease.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the degree of agreement between patient- and clinician-reported outcomes (PROs and CROs, respectively) in three chronic diseases.
METHODS: Respectively, 120, 131, and 61 French general practitioners (GPs) included 291, 307, and 90 patients with chronic venous disease (CVD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD), in a cross-sectional survey. Patients completed a specific Health-Related Quality of Life (QoL) questionnaire (Chronic Venous Insufficiency Questionnaire [CIVIQ], Functional Digestive Disorders Quality of Life [FDDQL], and Claudication Scale [CLAU-S], respectively) and scored their pain (visual analog scale, pain-free walking distance). GPs were concomitantly asked to estimate patients' pain and QoL.
RESULTS: Although correlated (CVD and IBS: Kw = 0.27 and Kw = 0.31, respectively; PAOD: r = 0.64, P < 0.01), pain intensity estimated by GPs was lower than as estimated by patients with CVD and IBS (e.g., 39.0 +/- 24.9 vs. 30.4 +/- 21.0 for IBS), and pain-free walking distance was greater as estimated by GPs than by patients with PAOD. Pain estimated by patients only partially reflected their QoL (r between 0.30 and 0.78; P between 0.02 and <0.01). Global QoL scores estimated by patients and GPs were moderately correlated (Kw between 0.17 and 0.28). GPs underestimated QoL impairment in CVD (global score: 72 +/- 19 vs. 61 +/- 20) and in most dimensions of the IBS questionnaire (in six of eight dimensions), and overestimated QoL impairment in PAOD (54 +/- 21 vs. 66 +/- 23).
CONCLUSIONS: Although correlated, PROs and CROs differed. In addition, their relationship was not consistent across diseases. PROs are therefore essential to take account of all the aspects of diseases.