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. 2024 Jul 24;8(1):78.
doi: 10.1186/s41687-024-00758-0.

Identification of the most relevant aspects of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) with impact on the quality of life of SMA patients and their caregivers: the PROfuture project, a qualitative study

Mencía de Lemus  1   2   3 , Maria G Cattinari  4 , Samuel I Pascual  5 , Julita Medina  6 , Mar García  5 , Ana Magallón  7 , María Dumont  1 , Pablo Rebollo  8
Affiliations

Identification of the most relevant aspects of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) with impact on the quality of life of SMA patients and their caregivers: the PROfuture project, a qualitative study

Mencía de Lemus et al. J Patient Rep Outcomes. .

Abstract

Background: SMA is a hereditary neuromuscular disease that causes progressive muscle weakness and atrophy. Several studies have shown that the burden of SMA is very high at many levels. Functional assessment tools currently used do not completely address the impact of the disease in patients' life. The objective of this qualitative study was to identify aspects of SMA that are relevant to patients and to design items useful for assessment purposes.

Results: Five focus group sessions were run during an annual SMA families meeting in Madrid, Spain. Focus groups were composed by parents of SMA type I children, sitter children type II-III, parents of sitter children type II-III, adult patients, and parents of walker children. Two trained facilitators conducted the focus groups using a semi-structured guideline to cover previously agreed topics based on the input of a Scientific and Patient Advisory Committee. The guideline was adapted for the different groups. According to what was communicated by participants, SMA entails a high burden of disease for both patients and their parents. Burden was perceived in physical, psychological, and social areas. Patient's physical domain was the most relevant for participants, especially for parents of non-ambulant children, followed by limitations of motor scales to capture all changes, parents psychological burden, treatment expectations and patient's psychological burden. Ten domains were the main areas identified as impacted by the disease: mobility and independence, fatigue and fatigability, infections and hospital consultations, scoliosis and contractures, vulnerability, pain, feeding, time spent in care, breathing, and sleep and rest.

Conclusions: This study confirms the necessity of evaluating other aspects of the disease that are not assessed in the functional motor scale. Measures of other aspects of the disease, such as pain, fatigue, feeding, should be also considered. A patient-reported outcomes instrument measuring such aspects in a valid and reliable way would be very useful. This study generated a list of new items relevant to be systematically measured in the assessment of the impact of SMA on the patients' everyday life.

Keywords: Outcome measures; Patient reported outcomes; Quality of life; Scales; Spinal muscular atrophy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Outline of the qualitative study on the SMA patient’s perspective on the disease and its treatment
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The final list of codes identified by the analysts and used in the study
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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