Evaluating patient-reported health outcome profiles of lower limb orthosis users.

Abstract

Purpose: To construct self-reported health outcomes profiles of lower limb orthosis users and compare scores to a normative sample representative of the United States general population.

Materials and methods: A cross-sectional online survey, which included the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Profile v2.0 (PROMIS-29), was administered to a national sample of adult lower limb orthosis users who had at least 6 months of experience using their orthosis.

Results: Relative to the U.S. general population, the 1,036 study participants report significantly worse anxiety, fatigue, pain interference, physical function, and ability to participate in social roles and activities (all p < 0.001). Differences in pain interference, physical function, and ability to participate in social roles and activities were all greater than 5 points. Subgroup analyses indicate those who also use assistive devices (e.g. canes, walkers) in addition to their orthoses generally have worse scores across multiple PROMIS domains.

Conclusions: Results of this study indicate lower limb orthosis users, as a group, report significantly worse health outcomes than the general population. These findings highlight health constructs that may be important to assess in clinical care and research and provide references scores for this patient population.