PROscorerTools (Q113373)

Provides a reliable and flexible toolbox to score patient-reported outcome (PRO), Quality of Life (QOL), and other psychometric measures. The guiding philosophy is that scoring errors can be eliminated by using a limited number of well-tested, well-behaved functions to score PRO-like measures. The workhorse of the package is the 'scoreScale' function, which can be used to score most single-scale measures. It can reverse code items that need to be reversed before scoring and pro-rate scores for missing item data. Currently, three different types of scores can be output: summed item scores, mean item scores, and scores scaled to range from 0 to 100. The 'PROscorerTools' functions can be used to write new functions that score more complex measures. In fact, 'PROscorerTools' functions are the building blocks of the scoring functions in the 'PROscorer' package (which is a repository of functions that score specific commonly-used instruments). Users are encouraged to use 'PROscorerTools' to write scoring functions for their favorite PRO-like instruments, and to submit these functions for inclusion in 'PROscorer' (a tutorial vignette will be added soon). The long-term vision for the 'PROscorerTools' and 'PROscorer' packages is to provide an easy-to-use system to facilitate the incorporation of PRO measures into research studies in a scientifically rigorous and reproducible manner. These packages and their vignettes are intended to help establish and promote "best practices" for scoring and describing PRO-like measures in research.