Individualized health-related quality of life instrument Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile (MYMOP) and its adaptations: a critical appraisal

Health-related quality of life (HRQL) is increasingly recognized for its importance in health research. As there is increasing recognition of the inter-individual difference in response to therapeutic interventions, it may be helpful to apply individualized measures of HRQL. The MYMOP is a commonly used example of such measures, although several adaptations have been developed.

This review was conducted to identify adaptations of MYMOP, and evaluate the measurement properties of MYMOP and its adaptations.

Adaptations were identified using MYMOP website and personal communication, supplemented by a SCOPUS search in April 2017. Bibliographies of included studies were hand-searched. COSMIN criteria were used to evaluate the measurement properties.

Sixteen studies were included in this review. Adaptations were developed to evaluate individualized therapies in cancer, psychiatry, and acupuncture. The included measures were MYMOP, measure yourself concern and wellbeing, psychological outcome profiles (PSYCHLOPS), and MYMOP-pictorial (MYMOP-P). The quality of the measurement properties varied; none of the included measures met all currently recommended quality criteria for measurement properties.

Current literature provides evidence that MYMOP and its adaptations offer individualized assessment of patient-centered outcomes, and thereby provide a means to understand heterogeneity of treatment effects. However, current recommendations for psychometric testing suggest further validation of these measures would be beneficial.