Addition of PROMIS pain instruments to PROMIS upper extremity physical function improves the responsiveness of PROMIS scores compared to legacy scores in patients undergoing total shoulder arthroplasty: a prospective study.

Background: Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information Systems (PROMIS) is increasingly being utilized across the United States as a patient-reported outcome evaluation tool for a wide variety of musculoskeletal conditions. However, PROMIS Upper Extremity (P-UE) physical function has demonstrated limited responsiveness in the early postoperative period after total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA). The aim of this study is to determine if addition of PROMIS Pain Interference (P-Interference) or Pain Intensity (P-Intensity) scores improve the ability to detect postoperative changes in the 1-year postoperative period following TSA.

Methods: Patients who were indicated for and elected to undergo TSA between 2020 and 2022 were prospectively enrolled. Prospective data were collected for patient surveys (American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES), Simple Shoulder Test, P-UE, P-Interference and P-Intensity) at the 2-week, 6-week, 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month timepoints. Instrument responsiveness for each PROM was evaluated using the effect size (ES; Cohen d). Responsiveness was defined by the absolute values of each measurement, previously reported as small (0.2), medium (0.5), or large (0.8). Statistical analysis (2 sample t-tests and Fisher's tests) was performed using R studio version 4.2.3 (Boston, MA, USA).

Results: A total of 127 subjects were enrolled in this study. All survey instruments demonstrated large responsiveness (>0.8) at 3, 6, and 12 months. P-Intensity was the only instrument to demonstrate large responsiveness at 2-weeks with its addition to P-UE showing an improved responsiveness at all-time points. Moreover, the addition of P-Intensity had a lower response burden at all-time points when compared to the legacy measures (ASES, Simple Shoulder Test, and Oxford Shoulder Score) at all-time points albeit no difference to ASES (P = .55) at 12-months after surgery. P-Interference and other legacy scores demonstrated large responsiveness starting at 6-weeks postoperatively.

Conclusion: The responsiveness of PROMIS UE can be improved by coupling the outcome measure to P-Intensity scores with a significantly lower response burden when compared to the legacy measures evaluated at nearly all time points.