A NEW SELF-COMPLETION OUTCOME MEASURE FOR DIABETES - IS IT RESPONSIVETO CHANGE

Self-completion instruments assessing subjective health are increasing ly being used to measure patient outcome. However, there is very littl e evidence as yet of existing instruments' responsiveness to change, T his paper describes a study to evaluate the responsiveness to change o f a self-completion instrument for the measurement of clinical outcome in patients with diabetes. A prospective follow-up study of 48 patien ts with non-insulin-dependent diabetes commencing insulin therapy was carried out, with assessments at baseline (i,e. pre-intervention), 6 w eeks and 3 months post-intervention. The outcome measures used were th e changes in scores on the self-completion instrument for symptom leve l, physical function, energy, depression, psychological distress and b arriers to activity, HbA(1)c, non-fasting serum cholesterol and the bo dy mass index (BMI). There were significant improvements in HbA(1)c an d non-fasting serum cholesterol and worsening of the BMI, as expected. The self-completion instrument detected significant improvements in p atient-reported symptoms within 6 weeks of the intervention (p < 0.01) and in energy levels (p < 0.05). There is evidence from this study of the self-completion instrument's ability to respond to change and it has potential for use in evaluative studies.