MEASuRE-D ESM Study

Maastricht Electronic Abdominal Symptom Reporting in Dyspepsia

MEASuRE-D stands for ‘Maastricht Electronic Abdominal Symptom Reporting in Dyspepsia’ and is a patient reported outcome measure (PROM), based on the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) or Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA). MEASuRE-D is specifically developed for symptom assessment in subjects experiencing upper abdominal complaints.

The most important features of MEASuRE-D are:

• Electronic recording of (upper abdominal) symptoms;

• Repeated measurements;

• Real-time assessment;

• Assessments during regular daily life;

• Consecutive recording of environmental, social and psychological factors.

The app is designed in a way that subjects will be requested to complete electronic assessments several times a day, at random moments, for seven consecutive days. Every assessment is initiated by an auditory and vibrating signal and assessments are identical between all moments. Since MEASuRE-D is aimed at real-time or momentary symptom assessment, every assessment will be available for only 10 minutes after the signal.

After completing MEASuRE-D for one week, researchers and/or physicians will have access to a detailed overview of a patient’s upper abdominal complaints in combination with daily life factors, such as environment, social context and psychological status. These data can give rise to finding (individual) patterns and associations between complaints and influencing factors, which might lead to a better understanding of symptoms as well as to possible novel ideas for symptom treatment. Furthermore, these detailed overviews give the opportunity for patients to get insight into their day-to-day symptom pattern.

MEASuRE-D is currently only available for subjects that participate in a research project investigating the validation of this method in subjects with functinonal dyspepsia, which was initiated in Maastricht UMC+, Maastricht, the Netherlands and is available in the Dutch language.