Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2005; 10: 43
To develop a set of outcome questionnaires that encompassed the whole range of outcomes experienced by patients with chronic health problems receiving acupuncture and Chinese medicine.
A 10-year programme of work combining literature reviews and quantitative and qualitative methods. The four qualitative studies used semistructured interviews (102 patient interviews), repeated during 4–6 months of treatment, alongside the completion of a range of validated and new questionnaires. Methods based on grounded theory were used to explore patients’ perceptions of their illness and treatment experiences. Cognitive interviewing and simple content analysis investigated the extent to which questionnaires were able to reflect and measure the treatment effects that patients perceived as important.
The treatment effects that patients described were categorised as changes in symptoms and medication, changes in energy and relaxation, and changes in self-concept (self-awareness, self-confidence and self-responsibility). Published and validated questionnaires were found to measure some of these outcomes and two new questionnaires were developed and validated to measure others. Changes in self-concept proved difficult to measure with a single questionnaire but the Wellbeing Questionnaire, W-BQ12, and the Patient Enablement Instrument worked well in combination. The patient-generated Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile (MYMOP) was developed and a new version includes an open qualitative question (MYMOP-qual). A new self-report Medication Change Questionnaire (MCQ) was shown to collect accurate individualised medication data.
A set of patient-centred outcome tools for Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (SPOT-ACM) is available for use and further quantitative validation of the set is underway.
This work was supported by the MRC Health Services Research Collaboration.
