PRO and quality of life
The PRO measurements are entirely different from the quality of life measurements. The Quality of life is a broad aspect, which measures all the well-being of a person. The PRO can be narrow and more specific to assess on one single symptom. PRO are used in places where only the patient knows the effect of the drug. Example: painkillers or drugs that suppress the pain. Only the patient knows how the drug works. The doctors can know the effect of drug only by asking the patient. Such things are possible with the pain intensity scale PROs.
Some drug manufacturing companies claim that their drugs makes the treatment better for the patient and also help in improving the standard of treatment the patient receives. Such a claim is possible only by analyzing the patient’s feedback in using the drug. This is done by the PRO instruments in identifying all aspects of well being of the patient. The quality of life measurements are used not only to identify the physical effects caused by the disease, but also to identify how much has it influenced on the emotional aspects of the person, his well being, his social activities, feelings and his ability to fight the risks. In spite of evaluating a drug effect on the quality of life, the FDA rarely accepted a claim stating that the drug has been the reason for patient’s effective improved quality of life. This is because; it is very hard to achieve the broader aspects of the quality of life to be satisfied by drugs that are targeted specific to certain symptoms.
However, usually with the Health related Quality of life aspects, a claim on improving the patient’s aspects of health can be accepted since it is much easier to capture the important features of the HQRL than the QoL. HQRL measures the patient’s knowledge of how a treatment affects their illness or well-being, at least the effect on their physical, mental and social behavior. For example, the Asthma Quality of Life instrument shortly termed as the AQLQ has proven to capture the behavior of the drug on asthma patients, which was accepted by the FDA.
