Keywords: response scales, patient-reported outcomes, electronic platforms, mobile devices
Based on work by the ePRO Consortium of the Critical Path Institute, this presentation describes commonly used response scales in patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures: verbal rating scale, visual analogue scale, and numeric rating scale. The presentation provides a description of each response scale and considerations for implementation of these response scales on electronic platforms. The considerations documented apply to interactive voice response, handheld, tablet, and web-based implementations. When selecting a mode of electronic implementation, the mode should support all the response scales to be used in the study. Generally, this presentation recommends that each response scale be rendered the same on a given device or platform; for example, the font type and the orientation of the items (i.e., landscape or portrait) should be consistent throughout the assessment. Target audiences include those developing PRO measures and those implementing PRO measures in electronic formats for clinical studies.