Adaptation and Quality of Life - Outcome Measure Pilot
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Adaptation and Quality of Life: Piloting a novel patient-reported outcome measure for people who use assistive technologies and other adaptive interventions
IRAS ID
373719
Contact name
Nathan Bray
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Bangor University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
348110, IRAS Project ID for first stage of project; 10.17605/OSF.IO/DQ52V, Open Science Framework - study registration
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Across the UK, almost a quarter of the population has a disability or impairment. It is common for disabled people to use assistive technologies to help them do everyday tasks. The term 'assistive technology' refers to a wide range of different types of devices and aids, such as alternative communication aids, wheelchairs and hearing aids. Disabled people can also use low-tech adaptive interventions like guide dogs and human assistance, these are often referred to or thought of in the same context as assistive technology.
The NHS and social care spend millions of pounds a year providing assistive technologies to people with disabilities and chronic conditions. However, these public services have limited budgets so tough decisions need to be made about what can be provided. In order to understand the effectiveness of different assistive technologies and adaptations, we need to be able to measure the benefits that they provide to patients in terms of improved health and quality of life.The aim of the AdaptQoL project is to develop a new patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) for people who use assistive technologies and other adaptations. PROMs are survey-based questionnaires which are used to assess health and quality of life.
In the first stage of the project (IRAS ID 348110) we conducted 49 interviews with a wide range of assistive technology users to understand what health and quality of life mean to them. We analysed what they said and developed the first iteration of the AdaptQoL tool; a novel measure of adaptation-related quality of life.
In this second stage of the project we aim to pilot the AdaptQoL tool to see if it is valid and reliable.
This project will help to improve how the NHS and care services measure the benefits of different assistive technologies and adaptations.
REC name
London - London Bridge Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/PR/0790
Date of REC Opinion
19 Jun 2026
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion