Mapping the content of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS^®) using the International Classification of Functioning, Health and Disability

Background: The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS^®) is a US National Institutes of Health initiative that has produced self-reported item banks for physical, mental and social health.

Objective: To describe the content of PROMIS at the item level using the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).

Methods: All PROMIS adult items (publicly available as of 2012) were assigned to relevant ICF concepts. The content of the PROMIS adult item banks was then described using the mapped ICF code descriptors.

Discussion: The PROMIS–ICF mapped items provide a basis for users to evaluate the ICF-related content of specific PROMIS instruments and to select PROMIS instruments in ICF-based measurement applications.

Results: The 1,006 items in the PROMIS instruments could all be mapped to ICF concepts at the second level of classification, with the exception of three items of global or general health that mapped across the first-level classification of ICF activity and participation component (d categories). Individual PROMIS item banks mapped from 1 to 5 separate ICF codes indicating one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-one mappings between PROMIS item banks and ICF second-level classification codes. PROMIS supports measurement of the majority of major concepts in the ICF body functions (b) and activity and participation (d) components using PROMIS item banks or subsets of PROMIS items that could, with care, be used to develop customized instruments. Given that the focus of PROMIS is on measurement of person health outcomes, concepts in body structures (s) and some body functions (b), as well as many ICF environmental factor, have minimal coverage in PROMIS.