MAY 2010

This document describes the dataset collected by the Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) programme, published by the NHS Information Centre (IC) at (http://www.ic.nhs.uk/proms). PROMs comprise a pair of questionnaires completed by the patient, one before and one after surgery. In April 2010, the NHS IC published

• a summary report • a score comparison tool (MS Excel) and • three key statistics dataset (MS Excel): commissioner tables, provider tables

and participation/linkage rates to set out key descriptive statistics of PROMs on patients’ self-reported health status before undergoing four surgical procedures:

• groin hernia surgery • hip replacements • knee replacements • varicose vein surgery

The data covers the period from April to November 2009 and includes 87,000 returned questionnaires from all English providers treating NHS patients. Three measures are used in PROMs to measure patients’ health status.

The EQ-5D descriptive system comprises the following five dimensions describing the patient’s general health:

• mobility • self-care • usual activities • pain/discomfort • anxiety/depression.

Each dimension has three levels: no problems, some problems, and severe problems. EQ-5D health states are then converted into a single summary index score up to 1(best health) by applying a formula that essentially attaches weights to each of the levels in each dimension.

The EQ-VAS involves respondents assigning themselves a score between 0 (worst) and 100 (best) to convey how good or bad their own health is on the day that they complete the questionnaire.

For hip and knee replacements the Oxford Hip Scores and Oxford Knee Scores are used. The scores comprise of 12 questions relating to the patient’s experience of pain, ease of joint movement and ease of undertaking normal domestic activities such as walking or climbing stairs. All questions are presented denoting least (or no) symptoms scoring 4 and those representing greatest severity scoring 0. The individual scores are then added together to provide a single score between 0 (best) and 48 (worst).

For varicose veins the Aberdeen Varicose Veins Questionnaire (AVVQ) has been used. The questionnaire is scored from 0 (best) to 100 (worst). The table below summarises the data in the three key statistics datasets and the score comparison tool. Dataset Description

Commissioners tables

Each data sheet contains PCT1 level data for each of the 4 procedures, and a summary data sheet showing SHA2 level data. Each datasheet contains data of: Background:

• Total eligible HES3 episodes • Count by gender • Average age • Average IMD4 ranking (between 1 (most deprived) and 32,482

(most affluent)) PROMs Results:

• Count, mean, median, 1st and 3rd quartiles for the three measures (EQ-5D index, EQ-5D VAS and condition-specific scoring)

Providers tables

Same datasheets as the Commissioners tables, but breaking down by hospitals.

Participation/ linkage rates

Data quality statistics which contains data (by hospital) of • Total eligible HES episodes, • Participation count and rate • Linkage (between PROMs and HES) count and rate • Linkage rate by month

Score comparison tool

Visualized data (as in box plots) of the data in the Commissioners, Providers and SHA tables. It allows users to compare the measure scores of their own organisation against another selected organisation and the national average.

Note:

1 Primary Care Trust

2 Strategic Health Authority

3 Hospital Episode Statistics

4 Index of Multiple Deprivations