Patient-reported outcome (PRO)
A patient-reported outcome (PRO) is a type of clinical outcome assessment (COA). A measurement based on a report that comes directly from the patient (i.e., study subject) about the status of a patient’s health condition without amendment or interpretation of the patient’s response by a clinician or anyone else. A PRO can be measured by self-report or by interview provided that the interviewer records only the patient’s response. Symptoms or other unobservable concepts known only to the patient can only be measured by PRO measures. PROs can also assess the patient perspective on functioning or activities that may also be observable by others. PRO measures include:
- Rating scales (e.g., numeric rating scale of pain intensity or Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire for assessing heart failure)
- Counts of events (e.g., patient-completed log of emesis episodes or micturition episodes)