The Patient Activation Measure (PAM) is a commercial product which assesses an individual's knowledge, skill, and confidence for managing one's health and healthcare. Individuals who measure high on this assessment typically understand the importance of taking a pro-active role in managing their health and have the skills and confidence to do so.
The PAM survey measures patients on a 0–100 scale and can segment patients into one of four activation levels along an empirically derived continuum. Each activation level reveals insight into an array of health-related characteristics, including attitudes, motivators, behaviors, and outcomes.
PAM was developed using qualitative methods, Rasch analysis, and classical test theory psychometric methods. Developed by Judith Hibbard and colleagues at the University of Oregon, the resulting 13-item measure is a uni-dimensional, interval level, Guttman-like scale. [1] [2] The PAM has strong psychometric properties, and has been translated into 22 different languages. [3] The measure is currently used to assess patient activation or engagement by researchers and healthcare organizations around the world. [4] [5] [6] [7] PAM is licensed exclusively through healthcare technology company Phreesia following the acquisition of its original licensor, Insignia Health, in December 2021. [8]
There are a number of instruments measuring similar constructs, including My Health Confidence, Patient Health Engagement Scale, Stanford self-efficacy for managing chronic disease 6-item scale, ICECAP-A (the ICEpop CAPability measure for Adults), [9] the Health Literacy Questionnaire and the Health Confidence Score. [10]
Multiple studies show that PAM scores are predictive of most health behaviors, including preventive behaviors (e.g. obtaining screenings and immunizations); healthy behaviors (e.g. healthy diet and regular exercise); self-management behaviors (e.g. monitoring and medication management); and health information seeking. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] Higher activated individuals also have better health outcomes and lower rates of costly utilization, such as emergency department use and hospitalizations. [11] [19] [20] [21] [22]
Further there is evidence that with support and appropriate interventions it is possible to increase activation levels in patients. [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] In patients with inflammatory arthritis, patient activation has been shown to be associated with self-efficacy, the illness beliefs about treatment, and health literacy. [28] This suggests that these predictors of patient activation could act as targets for intervention in this group of patients.
The Patient Activation Measure is being used in a number of ways to improve the delivery of health care, including:
Type 2 diabetes (T2D), formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, is a form of diabetes mellitus that is characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and relative lack of insulin. Common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent urination, fatigue and unexplained weight loss. Symptoms may also include increased hunger, having a sensation of pins and needles, and sores (wounds) that do not heal. Often symptoms come on slowly. Long-term complications from high blood sugar include heart disease, stroke, diabetic retinopathy which can result in blindness, kidney failure, and poor blood flow in the limbs which may lead to amputations. The sudden onset of hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state may occur; however, ketoacidosis is uncommon.
Disease management is defined as "a system of coordinated healthcare interventions and communications for populations with conditions in which patient self-care efforts are significant."
Motivational interviewing (MI) is a counseling approach developed in part by clinical psychologists William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick. It is a directive, client-centered counseling style for eliciting behavior change by helping clients to explore and resolve ambivalence. Compared with non-directive counseling, it is more focused and goal-directed, and departs from traditional Rogerian client-centered therapy through this use of direction, in which therapists attempt to influence clients to consider making changes, rather than engaging in non-directive therapeutic exploration. The examination and resolution of ambivalence is a central purpose, and the counselor is intentionally directive in pursuing this goal. MI is most centrally defined not by technique but by its spirit as a facilitative style for interpersonal relationship.
A pain scale measures a patient's pain intensity or other features. Pain scales are a common communication tool in medical contexts, and are used in a variety of medical settings. Pain scales are a necessity to assist with better assessment of pain and patient screening. Pain measurements help determine the severity, type, and duration of the pain, and are used to make an accurate diagnosis, determine a treatment plan, and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. Pain scales are based on trust, cartoons (behavioral), or imaginary data, and are available for neonates, infants, children, adolescents, adults, seniors, and persons whose communication is impaired. Pain assessments are often regarded as "the 5th vital sign".
The term diabetes includes several different metabolic disorders that all, if left untreated, result in abnormally high concentrations of a sugar called glucose in the blood. Diabetes mellitus type 1 results when the pancreas no longer produces significant amounts of the hormone insulin, usually owing to the autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. Diabetes mellitus type 2, in contrast, is now thought to result from autoimmune attacks on the pancreas and/or insulin resistance. The pancreas of a person with type 2 diabetes may be producing normal or even abnormally large amounts of insulin. Other forms of diabetes mellitus, such as the various forms of maturity-onset diabetes of the young, may represent some combination of insufficient insulin production and insulin resistance. Some degree of insulin resistance may also be present in a person with type 1 diabetes.
In medicine, patient compliance describes the degree to which a patient correctly follows medical advice. Most commonly, it refers to medication or drug compliance, but it can also apply to other situations such as medical device use, self care, self-directed exercises, or therapy sessions. Both patient and health-care provider affect compliance, and a positive physician-patient relationship is the most important factor in improving compliance. Access to care plays a role in patient adherence, whereby greater wait times to access care contributing to greater absenteeism. The cost of prescription medication also plays a major role.
A chronic condition is a health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time. The term chronic is often applied when the course of the disease lasts for more than three months. Common chronic diseases include diabetes, functional gastrointestinal disorder, eczema, arthritis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, autoimmune diseases, genetic disorders and some viral diseases such as hepatitis C and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. An illness which is lifelong because it ends in death is a terminal illness. It is possible and not unexpected for an illness to change in definition from terminal to chronic. Diabetes and HIV for example were once terminal yet are now considered chronic due to the availability of insulin for diabetics and daily drug treatment for individuals with HIV which allow these individuals to live while managing symptoms.
Self-care has been defined as the process of establishing behaviors to ensure holistic well-being of oneself, to promote health, and actively manage illness when it occurs. Individuals engage in some form of self-care daily with food choices, exercise, sleep, and hygiene. Self-care is not only a solo activity, as the community—a group that supports the person performing self-care—overall plays a role in access to, implementation of, and success of self-care activities.
Patient education is a planned interactive learning process designed to support and enable expert patients to manage their life with a disease and/or optimise their health and well-being.
Chronic care management encompasses the oversight and education activities conducted by health care professionals to help patients with chronic diseases and health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, and sleep apnea learn to understand their condition and live successfully with it. This term is equivalent to disease management for chronic conditions. The work involves motivating patients to persist in necessary therapies and interventions and helping them to achieve an ongoing, reasonable quality of life.
The Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC) is a classification system which describes patient outcomes sensitive to nursing intervention. The NOC is a system to evaluate the effects of nursing care as a part of the nursing process. The NOC contains 330 outcomes, and each with a label, a definition, and a set of indicators and measures to determine achievement of the nursing outcome and are included The terminology is an American Nurses' Association-recognized terminology, is included in the UMLS, and is HL7 registered.
A depression rating scale is a psychometric instrument (tool), usually a questionnaire whose wording has been validated with experimental evidence, having descriptive words and phrases that indicate the severity of depression for a time period. When used, an observer may make judgements and rate a person at a specified scale level with respect to identified characteristics. Rather than being used to diagnose depression, a depression rating scale may be used to assign a score to a person's behaviour where that score may be used to determine whether that person should be evaluated more thoroughly for a depressive disorder diagnosis. Several rating scales are used for this purpose.
Caregiver syndrome or caregiver stress is a condition that strongly manifests exhaustion, anger, rage, or guilt resulting from unrelieved caring for a chronically ill patient. This condition is not listed in the United States' Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, although the term is often used by many healthcare professionals in that country. The equivalent used in many other countries, the ICD-11, does include the condition.
In general, quality of life is the perceived quality of an individual's daily life, that is, an assessment of their well-being or lack thereof. This includes all emotional, social and physical aspects of the individual's life. In health care, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an assessment of how the individual's well-being may be affected over time by a disease, disability or disorder.
Shared decision-making in medicine (SDM) is a process in which both the patient and physician contribute to the medical decision-making process and agree on treatment decisions. Health care providers explain treatments and alternatives to patients and help them choose the treatment option that best aligns with their preferences as well as their unique cultural and personal beliefs.
Prevention of type 2 diabetes can be achieved with both lifestyle changes and use of medication. The American Diabetes Association categorizes people with prediabetes, who have glycemic levels higher than normal but do not meet criteria for diabetes, as a high-risk group. Without intervention, people with prediabetes progress to type 2 diabetes with a 5% to 10% rate. Diabetes prevention is achieved through weight loss and increased physical activity, which can reduce the risk of diabetes by 50% to 60%.
The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) is a multiple-choice self-report inventory that is used as a screening and diagnostic tool for mental health disorders of depression, anxiety, alcohol, eating, and somatoform disorders. It is the self-report version of the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD), a diagnostic tool developed in the mid-1990s by Pfizer Inc. The length of the original assessment limited its feasibility; consequently, a shorter version, consisting of 11 multi-part questions - the Patient Health Questionnaire was developed and validated.
The Cambridge Pulmonary Hypertension Outcome Review (CAMPHOR) is a disease specific patient-reported outcome measure which assesses quality of life of patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH). It was the first pulmonary hypertension specific questionnaire for assessing patient reported symptoms, quality of life and functioning.
Patient satisfaction is a measure of the extent to which a patient is content with the health care which they received from their health care provider.
Judith Hoffman Hibbard is the senior researcher of the Health Policy Research Group at the University of Oregon. She is also the professor emerita of the university's Department of Planning, Public Policy, and Management. Her research mostly concerns topics such as health literacy and how consumers utilize health information, and patient activation.