Comparison of seven-day and repeated 24-hour recall of symptoms in the first 100 days after hematopoietic cell transplantation

Abstract

Context: Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) provide a way to understand the effects of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT)-related stress on patients' lives. We previously reported that weekly collection of PROs is feasible.

Objectives: Here, we report on the feasibility of daily patient-reported symptom collection and examine the relationship between daily vs. weekly symptom reporting over time.

Methods: We analyzed data from 32 autologous and allogeneic HCT patients obtained until Day (D) +100. We used questions from the PRO version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events to capture symptoms.

Results: We found that overall rates of daily survey completion were moderate to high (range 67%-86%). The effect size of the difference between the maximum daily severity score and the weekly severity score ranged from 0.15 to 0.35, and the concordance correlation coefficient ranged from 0.513 to 0.834. Concordance of daily and weekly surveys was higher for maximum daily severity rating and mean daily severity rating than for minimum daily severity rating or most recent daily severity rating.

Conclusion: We conclude that a seven-day recall period for symptom severity provides acceptable accuracy and precision in the first 100 days after HCT. Further studies to explore the utility of daily symptom reporting within specific clinical contexts may be warranted.

Keywords: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; PRO-CTCAE; patient-reported outcomes; symptom burden.

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures

There are no conflicts of interest to report.

Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. All rights reserved.

Figures

Figure 1

Percentages of patients in whom the maximum daily scores were different than the corresponding weekly scores for that week, by symptom and by time period. “Pre” means prior to discharge from the initial transplant hospitalization and “post” means after discharge from the initial transplant hospitalization. The color coded numbers refer to the difference between the maximum daily scores and the corresponding weekly scores. A positive number means that the weekly score was greater than the maximum daily score during that week, and the magnitude corresponds to the absolute difference between the two. A negative number means that the weekly score was less than the maximum daily score. “0” means that the weekly score for that week were the same.