Patient-reported outcomes tied to healthcare use in NDMM

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) may help predict healthcare utilization, such as emergency department visits or unplanned hospitalizations (ED/hosp), among patients with transplant-ineligible newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM), a recent study has found.

Drawing from encrypted administrative healthcare databases, the researchers assessed 2,876 patients who completed a total of 17,373 PROM assessments with the standardized Edmonton Symptoms Assessment System (ESAS). The outcome of interest was at least one ED/hosp episode within 14 days of ESAS.

Of the participants, 1,172 (40.8 percent) had 1,755 ED/hosp visits within 1 year following diagnosis. There was a slight upward trend in the proportion of patients with ED/hosp within 14 days according to total ESAS score. For instance, only 5 percent of those scoring 0–10 on ESAS were hospitalized within 14 days. This proportion grew to 17 percent among those with scores of 41–50, and to 31 percent in participants with scores 81–90.

Multivariable regression analysis confirmed that total ESAS score was significantly correlated with 14-day ED/hosp, such that each 10-point increase in score led to a 34-percent increase in outcome odds (odds ratio [OR], 1.34, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.29–1.38; p<0.01).

Similar effects, but at weaker magnitudes, were reported for several subdomains of ESAS, such as pain (OR, 1.06, 95 percent CI, 1.04–1.08; p<0.01), tiredness (OR, 1.05, 95 percent CI, 1.02–1.08; p<0.01), lack of appetite (OR, 1.07, 95 percent CI, 1.05–1.09; p<0.01), shortness of breath (OR, 1.07, 95 percent CI, 1.04–1.09; p<0.01), and wellbeing (OR, 1.04, 95 percent CI, 1.01–1.07; p=0.02).