An International Study to Develop The SCAR-Q
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An International Study to Develop A Patient-Reported Outcome Measure for Patients with Scars: The SCAR-Q
IRAS ID
281956
Contact name
Neil Bulstrode
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 30 days
Research summary
Countless scars occur annually from burns, surgical interventions, and trauma. Some scars can impact psychosocial functioning with increased anxiety and self-consciousness, and impair physical functioning and quality of life. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs), such as these, are well captured with PRO measures (PROMs). Recently, we developed and validated the SCAR-Q, a PROM specifically designed to capture a patient’s viewpoint about their scars, for both adult and pediatric (8 years of age and older) burn, surgical, and traumatic scar populations.
We are now in the later phases of instrument development and validation – establishing the responsiveness of the SCAR-Q, and determining the minimal important change (MIC), and minimal clinically important difference (MCID) in SCAR-Q scores. As an aspect of construct validity, responsiveness is how an instrument responds to change over time, and is a measurement standard for PROMs. The MIC is the smallest change in score perceived as important to a patient, while the MCID is the smallest difference in a measurable clinical parameter that indicates a meaningful change in the condition as perceived by the patient, clinician, or investigator. Assessing responsiveness and the MIC/MCID will be the primary aims of this study. Secondarily, our study will determine how scores on the SCAR-Q relate to scores on other commonly employed measures of scar assessment (e.g. Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS), and Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale (POSAS)); and also evaluate the influence of body image on scar perception as measured by the Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA).
REC name
Wales REC 2
REC reference
21/WA/0043
Date of REC Opinion
16 Feb 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion