BACKGROUND: No validated patient-reported outcome (PRO) measure exists for functional dyspepsia (FD) assessment. Verbal descriptions of different upper abdominal symptoms may be poorly distinguishable to patients. AIM: To investigate whether understanding of FD symptoms is enhanced by pictograms symbolising the nature of the symptoms, besides verbal descriptors. METHODS:Consecutive FD patients were randomised to fill out a questionnaire assessing nineupper gastrointestinal symptoms (post-prandial fullness, early satiation, epigastric pain, epigastric burning, bloating centred in the upper abdomen, nausea, vomiting, heartburn, regurgitation) with or without accompanying pictograms. Symptoms were rated for frequency and severity (0-5), and patients also identified the most bothersome symptom. Subsequently, in-depth history was taken by an expert clinician, who filled out the same symptom ratings. Concordance between patient and clinician ratings was quantified using chi-square and kappa statistics. RESULTS: Content validity of pictograms was first confirmed by 15 FD patients. Next, 76 patients (52 women, age 42.2 ± 1.9) were randomised to questionnaires with or without pictograms. The concordance with clinician's assessment as gold standard rose from 36 without to 48% for questions with pictograms (P < 0.0001). Considering the Rome III subdivision, benefit in concordance with pictograms was present for post-prandial distress, epigastric pain syndrome and reflux symptoms. Kappa statistics confirmed these gains (weighted kappa values for concordance of symptom frequency ratings rose from 0.214 to 0.446 with pictograms), and also showed better concordance of the most bothersome symptom with pictograms. CONCLUSION: Pictograms accompanying verbal descriptors significantly improve concordance of functional dyspepsia symptom ratings by patients with evaluation by their physicians.
RCT Entities:
BACKGROUND: No validated patient-reported outcome (PRO) measure exists for functional dyspepsia (FD) assessment. Verbal descriptions of different upper abdominal symptoms may be poorly distinguishable to patients. AIM: To investigate whether understanding of FD symptoms is enhanced by pictograms symbolising the nature of the symptoms, besides verbal descriptors. METHODS: Consecutive FDpatients were randomised to fill out a questionnaire assessing nineupper gastrointestinal symptoms (post-prandial fullness, early satiation, epigastric pain, epigastric burning, bloating centred in the upper abdomen, nausea, vomiting, heartburn, regurgitation) with or without accompanying pictograms. Symptoms were rated for frequency and severity (0-5), and patients also identified the most bothersome symptom. Subsequently, in-depth history was taken by an expert clinician, who filled out the same symptom ratings. Concordance between patient and clinician ratings was quantified using chi-square and kappa statistics. RESULTS: Content validity of pictograms was first confirmed by 15 FDpatients. Next, 76 patients (52 women, age 42.2 ± 1.9) were randomised to questionnaires with or without pictograms. The concordance with clinician's assessment as gold standard rose from 36 without to 48% for questions with pictograms (P < 0.0001). Considering the Rome III subdivision, benefit in concordance with pictograms was present for post-prandial distress, epigastric pain syndrome and reflux symptoms. Kappa statistics confirmed these gains (weighted kappa values for concordance of symptom frequency ratings rose from 0.214 to 0.446 with pictograms), and also showed better concordance of the most bothersome symptom with pictograms. CONCLUSION: Pictograms accompanying verbal descriptors significantly improve concordance of functional dyspepsia symptom ratings by patients with evaluation by their physicians.
Authors: Christopher J Black; Peter A Paine; Anurag Agrawal; Imran Aziz; Maria P Eugenicos; Lesley A Houghton; Pali Hungin; Ross Overshott; Dipesh H Vasant; Sheryl Rudd; Richard C Winning; Maura Corsetti; Alexander C Ford Journal: Gut Date: 2022-07-07 Impact factor: 31.793
Authors: H Vanheel; F Carbone; L Valvekens; M Simren; H Tornblom; T Vanuytsel; L Van Oudenhove; J Tack Journal: Am J Gastroenterol Date: 2016-12-13 Impact factor: 10.864
Authors: Lucas Wauters; Ram Dickman; Vasile Drug; Agata Mulak; Jordi Serra; Paul Enck; Jan Tack; Anna Accarino; Giovanni Barbara; Serhat Bor; Benoit Coffin; Maura Corsetti; Heiko De Schepper; Dan Dumitrascu; Adam Farmer; Guillaume Gourcerol; Goran Hauser; Trygve Hausken; George Karamanolis; Daniel Keszthelyi; Carolin Malagelada; Tomislav Milosavljevic; Jean Muris; Colm O'Morain; Athanassos Papathanasopoulos; Daniel Pohl; Diana Rumyantseva; Giovanni Sarnelli; Edoardo Savarino; Jolien Schol; Arkady Sheptulin; Annemieke Smet; Andreas Stengel; Olga Storonova; Martin Storr; Hans Törnblom; Tim Vanuytsel; Monica Velosa; Marek Waluga; Natalia Zarate; Frank Zerbib Journal: United European Gastroenterol J Date: 2021-04 Impact factor: 4.623
Authors: Robert C Heading; Edward C M Thomas; Phil Sandy; Gary Smith; Ronnie Fass; Pali S Hungin Journal: Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol Date: 2016-04 Impact factor: 2.566