The following is a summary of “Patient-determined disease steps is not interchangeable with the Expanded Disease Status Scale in mild to moderate multiple sclerosis,” published in the August 2023 issue of Neurology by Foong et al.
Patients with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) may experience uncertainty regarding the validity, reliability, and longitudinal performance of patient-determined disease steps (PDDS). Researchers conducted a cohort study to assess the psychometric properties and longitudinal performance of the PDDS.
They enrolled patients diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) with an EDSS <4. The validity and test-retest reliability were assessed. Longitudinal data was analyzed using mixed effect modeling and Cohen’s kappa for concordance in confirmed disability progression (CDP).
The results showed 1,093 participants, with 904 possessing complete baseline data. The baseline correlation between PDDS and EDSS was weak (P=0.45, P<0.001). PDDS demonstrated stronger correlations with patient-reported outcomes (PROs), while EDSS exhibited stronger correlations with age, disease duration, Kurtzke’s functional systems, and Processing Speed Test (PST). PDDS test-retest reliability showed good to excellent results (CCC=0.73-0.89).
They concluded that PDDS correlates better with other PROs but less with MS-related outcome measures longitudinally, suggesting PDDS is not interchangeable.
Source: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ene.16046
