Developing a Patient Reported Outcome on Medication-related Quality of Life (PRO-mQoL) for Persons with Physical Disability

Approximately one in five Canadians over the age of 15 experience one or more disabilities, with more people experiencing disability as they age. Physical disabilities are the most commonly reported type of disability, especially ones that cause people pain and those that affect their mobility. Physical disability affects many aspects of a person's life, such as their ability to move around the home and community, their physical and mental health, and ultimately their quality of life. Medications (prescription and non-prescription) are commonly used to prevent and treat conditions. To help guide the assessment and treatment of persons with physical disability taking medications, it is important to ensure that clinicians use a patient-reported outcome tool that takes into account how patient's feel about the impact of their medications (positive and negative) on their quality of life. Our team will develop a patient-reported outcome for persons with physical disability (PRO-mQoL). We will obtain important feedback from persons with physical disability across the different stages of the research activities to help inform the development of the tool. The PRO-mQoL tool will assist healthcare providers and policy-makers to better understand the impact of taking medications on the quality of life in people with physical disabilities. The development of the PRO-mQOL tool will contribute to safer care plans and will lead to improved shared decision-making between patients with physical disabilities and their healthcare providers.