The set of PROMIS Dyspnea instruments include two banks and two 10-item short forms that measure dyspnea severity and dyspnea-related functional limitations and 8 item pools that measure other aspects of the dyspnea experience. The banks and short forms have been tested and validated, and they are comprised of calibrated items. There are 3 papers reporting on the development and validation of these measures (Victorson et al., 2009; Choi et al., 2011; Yount et al., 2011 – all published in the journal Value in Health). The 8 pools do not contain calibrated items and have not yet been tested. All of the dyspnea measures were developed for and tested with people with COPD. As is often the case, the selection of which measure to use is guided by what you want to know about your respondents. The dyspnea severity and functional limitations measures both ask about the same set of activities; dyspnea severity items ask how short of breath one is when doing the activities, and functional limitations items ask how much difficulty the respondent has had while doing the activity due to their shortness of breath. They are highly correlated (see Choi et al. paper), so for reasons of participant burden, we recommend you select one of them to administer.
