Journal of Evaluation In Clinical Practice

Background. The previously developed Postoperative Recovery Profile (PRP) questionnaire is intended for self-assessment of general recovery after surgery. The aim of this study was to further evaluate the questionnaire regarding the construct validity and ability to discriminate recovery profiles between groups. Furthermore, the item variables of greatest importance during the progress of recovery were investigated.Methods. Postoperative recovery was assessed during the period from discharge to 12 months after lower abdominal- and orthopedic surgery. Construct validity was evaluated by comparing the assessments from the PRP-questionnaire and a global recovery scale. Recovery profiles of the diagnose groups were displayed by the cumulative proportion recovered participants over time. The importance of item variables was investigated by ranking ordering.Results. A total of 158 patients were included. The result showed that 7.6 % of all possible pairs were disordered when comparing the assessments from the PRP questionnaire and the global recovery scale. Twelve months after discharge 51 % participants in the abdominal group were fully recovered, as compared with the 73%, in the orthopedic group (95% CI: 6 % to 40 %). The item variable pain appeared as top five at eight measurement occasions of eight possible in both the abdominal and the orthopedic groups. The importance of the items was emphasized.Conclusions. The PRP questionnaire allows for evaluation of the progress of postoperative recovery, and can be useful to assess patient-reported recovery after surgical treatment. Knowledge about recovery profiles can assist clinicians in determining the critical time points for measuring change.