Patient-Reported Outcomes for Irritable Bowel Syndrome Are Associated With Patients' Severity Ratings of Gastrointestinal Symptoms and Psychological Factors (original) (raw)

2011, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology

PROs) are used to gauge the benefit of treatments for functional gastrointestinal disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Commonly used end points derived from scales of symptom severity differ in their structure, format, and the extent to which they are based on established psychometric fundamentals. We evaluated the overlap between 2 measures of IBS symptom severity, documented their association with different symptoms (pain, bloating, altered defecation), and identified psychological factors that might bias PRO ratings, by affecting how patients interpret IBS symptom severity.