Measurement properties of oral health related patient reported outcome measures in patients with oral cancer: A systematic review using COSMIN checklist

BACKGROUND: Oral cancer (OC) is one of the common malignant neoplasm resulting in a range of debilitating symptoms. Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) could provide a valuable insight into the impact of OC on patients’ quality of life (QoL). Selecting an adequate instrument among available PROMs for OC has been challenging for clinicians due to lack of information on their psychometric quality. This systematic review provides an extensive overview of methodological quality of all currently available PROMs for OC. METHOD: A systematic search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and CINAHL for relevant literature until 10(th) January 2019 and data was extracted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The quality of the identified studies was assessed per measurement property according to the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurements Instruments (COSMIN) checklist. RESULTS: Seven studies were found evaluating 6 health-related QoL PROMs. Among six, there were 1 disease-specific and 5 generic PROMs. Information regarding important measurement properties was often incomplete. The evidence for the quality of measurement properties was found to be variable, none of the instruments performed sufficient on all measurement properties. Considering results of this review, QOL-OC appeared to have adequate COSMIN measurement properties. CONCLUSION: QOL-OC can be implemented in future studies to better understand symptoms and expectations of OC patients and help inform clinicians to formulate treatment strategies as per patients’ needs.