A Narrative Literature Review of Bias in Collecting Patient Reported Outcomes Measures (PROMs)

There is a growing interest in the collection and use of patient reported outcomes because they not only provide clinicians with crucial information, but can also be used for economic evaluation and enable public health decisions. During the collection phase of PROMs, there are several factors that can potentially bias the analysis of PROM data. It is crucial that the collected data are reliable and comparable. The aim of this paper was to analyze the type of bias that have already been taken into consideration in the literature. A literature review was conducted by the authors searching on PubMed database, after the selection process, 24 studies were included in this review, mostly regarding orthopedics. Seven types of bias were identified: Non-response bias, collection method related bias, fatigue bias, timing bias, language bias, proxy response bias, and recall bias. Regarding fatigue bias and timing bias, only one study was found; for non-response bias, collection mode related bias, and recall bias, no agreement was found between studies. For these reasons, further research on this subject is needed in order to assess each bias type in relation to each medical specialty, and therefore find correction methods for reliable and comparable data for analysis.