Goal Attainment Scale as a Patient-Reported Outcome for Ataxias

Abstract

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs), one of the Clinical Outcome Assessments (COAs) used in clinical research, allow the patient voice to be used as an outcome in routine care and clinical trials. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs), one of the Assessments in rehabilitation medicine, it is sometimes challenging to set goals and determine the effectiveness of conventional outcome assessments consisting of standardized items, which take into account "meaningful goal" and "meaningful change" based on individual patients' lifestyles and desires. The Goal Attainment Scale (GAS), one of the PROs, allows patients to freely select priority issues as evaluation items in the individual patient and quantify goal attainment. On the other hand, the high degree of freedom in the evaluation criteria (goal attainment) set by patients, families, and healthcare providers affects the scale's characteristics (validity, reliability, and responsiveness), and the lack of uniformity in its use makes the GAS challenging to use in clinical practice. This paper provides a practical guide to using standardized GAS by presenting procedures for goal setting and effectiveness assessment in GAS and a case study of their use in ataxia.