Child and parent preferences for graphical display of patient-reported outcome data.

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROs) generate reproducible, objective measures of patient functioning and symptoms. Clinical PRO use has proven benefits. Parent and child preferences for the graphical display of PRO data are not known. We conducted a qualitative study to determine preferences for graphical display of PRO data for use in the clinical setting. Participants were shown line graphs depicting a patient's PRO score with variations in orientation, shading and text. Final consensus graphs were elicited. Participants selected the graph with the highest level of visual and text interpretation of PRO scores.