Hypopituitary patients prefer a touch-screen to paper quality of life questionnaire

Health Related Quality of Life questionnaires are frequently used for research, however only recently has their use been recommended in the routine clinical management of pituitary patients. Questionnaires frequently have complex scoring systems, and may be cumbersome, limiting widespread application. Touch-screen technology can overcome these limitations. We have developed a touch-screen 'Questions on Life Satisfaction-Hypopituitarism' QLS-H (Flash 5 Action script, program design by IG) questionnaire and compared its use and accuracy with a paper version questionnaire in 50 pituitary patients who were attending routine clinics. The HRQoL Z-score for the patient group was lower than the average for the normal UK population, as might be predicted for this patient group. There was no statistically significant difference between scores obtained by the touch-screen and paper questionnaires; mean (SD) Z score was −1.33 (1.4) for touch-screen and −1.26 (1.5) for paper. The touch-screen was preferred by 80% of patients, and quicker to complete (<5 min). Additionally, there were significant errors in 14 (28%) of manually scored paper questionnaires. In conclusion: Touch-screen QLS-H questionnaires have advantages over the paper version for the routine clinical assessment of patients with hypopituitarism.