Describing diversity of real world data sources in pharmacoepidemiologic studies: The DIVERSE scoping review.

PURPOSE: Real-world evidence (RWE) is increasingly used for medical regulatory decisions, yet concerns persist regarding its reproducibility and hence validity. This study addresses reproducibility challenges associated with diversity across real-world data sources (RWDS) repurposed for secondary use in pharmacoepidemiologic studies. Our aims were to identify, describe and characterize practices, recommendations and tools for collecting and reporting diversity across RWDSs, and explore how leveraging diversity could improve the quality of evidence. METHODS: In a preliminary phase, keywords for a literature search and selection tool were designed using a set of documents considered to be key by the coauthors. Next, a systematic search was conducted up to December 2021. The resulting documents were screened based on titles and abstracts, then based on full texts using the selection tool. Selected documents were reviewed to extract information on topics related to collecting and reporting RWDS diversity. A content analysis of the topics identified explicit and latent themes. RESULTS: Across the 91 selected documents, 12 topics were identified: 9 dimensions used to describe RWDS (organization accessing the data source, data originator, prompt, inclusion of population, content, data dictionary, time span, healthcare system and culture, and data quality), tools to summarize such dimensions, challenges, and opportunities arising from diversity. Thirty-six themes were identified within the dimensions. Opportunities arising from data diversity included multiple imputation and standardization. CONCLUSIONS: The dimensions identified across a large number of publications lay the foundation for formal guidance on reporting diversity of data sources to facilitate interpretation and enhance replicability and validity of RWE.

Validated Instruments of Quality of Life (QOL) in Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and Other Cancers.

INTRODUCTION: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) can negatively impact quality of life (QOL). Few QOL instruments are specific to and have been validated in AML. This review aims to identify QOL instruments that have been validated in patients with AML and other cancers and summarize their psychometric properties reported in published literature. A literature review search was performed using PubMed and OVID (Biosis, Embase, MEDLINE) databases through June 25, 2020. Search terms included: QOL, health-related QOL, patient-reported outcomes and validity, reliability, validated, tools, instruments, test-retest, and leukemia myeloid acute, leukemia, myeloid, acute, acute myeloid leukemia. Articles were included if they focused on cancer and reported psychometric properties that could be extracted. Abstracts and their references were reviewed for inclusion. RESULTS: Twelve evaluating ten instruments were included. Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Leukemia (FACT-Leu) showed internal consistency (IC) of α = 0.86 to >0.9, correlation with EQ-5D-3L of r > 0.50, correlation with European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-Leu of ρ = 0.29-0.63, test-retest reliability of κ = 0.861. FACT-F showed correlations with EORTC QLQ-C30 of r = 0.40-0.83. Hematological Malignancy Patient-Reported Outcome (HM-PRO) showed intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.94-0.98. EORTC-8D and EQ-5D-3L showed ICC = 0.595, correlations with each other of ρ = 0.137-0.634 and with EORTC QLQ-C30 of r = 0.651-0.917. EORTC QLQ-C30 showed person separation reliability of 0.47 to 0.90 and patient-observer agreement of 0.85. Life Ingredient Profile (LIP) showed IC of α = 0.29-0.77 and test-retest reliability of κ = 0.42-1.0. QOL-E showed correlation with FACT-general of R = 0.71, internal validity of α = 0.7, and test-retest reliability of standardized Cronbach's α = 0.7-0.92. EORTC QLQ-Leu showed IC of α = 0.6-0.79. The Acute Myeloid Leukemia-Quality of Life (AML-QOL) instrument showed IC of α = 0.72, correlations with EORTC QLQ-30 of magnitudes ρ = 0.59-0.72, and test-retest reliability of ICC = 0.52-0.91. CONCLUSION: Although several QOL instruments have been validated, more research is needed to determine the most clinically useful instruments in patients with AML.