Patient-reported outcomes in multiple sclerosis: Validation of the Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders (Neuro-QoL™) short forms

BACKGROUND: Patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures have been shown to be effective for tracking treatment outcomes in multiple sclerosis (MS). However, collecting PROs as part of the clinical standard of care can be time-consuming and examination of their validity for use in an MS sample has been limited. OBJECTIVE: To determine the discriminant validity of the Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders (Neuro-QoL™) short forms in a real-world MS clinic population. DESIGN/METHODS: Neuro-QoL is a series of questionnaires for tracking physical function, emotional/cognitive health, and social abilities in clinical populations. Neuro-QoL data from 902 MS patients were analyzed for psychometric properties and factor structure. RESULTS: Neuro-QoL demonstrated acceptable reliability in the moderate-to-good ranges. Moderate support for convergent validity was observed with other measures of MS quality of life, disease severity, and symptoms. However, results from a confirmatory factor analysis suggested poor model fit for most of the 12 domains tested. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the utility of some of the Neuro-QoL questionnaires in evaluating MS-related PROs. However, additional research may help abridge and strengthen these measures for use in this population.