Purpose: Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC)-associated complications, such as infections and thrombosis, impact significantly upon patients’ experiences and outcomes of care. The purpose of this study was to assess the utility of a patient-reported outcome measure (EuroQol Five Dimension Five Level (EQ5D-5L)), and patient-reported experience measure (Australian Hospital Patient Experience Question Set (AHPEQS)), to discriminate incidence of PICC failure among adults.
Methods: A secondary analysis was undertaken of two large randomised controlled trials, conducted in two adult tertiary hospitals in Queensland, Australia. The EQ5D-5L and AHPEQS instruments were assessed against incidence of three clinical outcomes likely to impact upon self-reported outcomes and experiences: Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI), venous thrombosis, and all-cause PICC complication. Partial proportional odds, multinomial logistic, linear regression and generalised linear regression models were used to assess instrument performance.
Results: Overall, 984 participants provided baseline EQ5D-5L responses. Subsequently, n=628 completed an EQ5D-5L at study end; n=552 further completed the AHPEQS. EQ5D-5L demonstrated poor discrimination of individual complications (CLABSI, thrombosis), however, there was a significant association (p=<0.05) between all-cause PICC complication and: utility (− 0.1, Confidence Interval (CI) − 0.1 to − 0.1); disutility (0.4, CI 0.2–0.7); and self-reported health (– 4.3, CI − 7.8 to − 0.9). AHPEQS demonstrated poor discrimination; one item (‘both physical and emotional harm’) was significantly associated with all-cause PICC complication (1.0, 95%CI 0.1–1.9); CLABSI (2.4, 95%CI 0.7–4.2); and thrombosis (2.0, 95%CI 0.7–3.4).
Conclusion: EQ5D-5L demonstrated moderate suitability for use among patients with PICCs; AHPEQS demonstrated little reliability.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11136-026-04264-2.
Reference:Larsen EN, Ullman AJ, Marsh N, Royle R, Takashima M, August D, Comans Inglis P, Gavin N, Corley A, Scanlon B, Tapsall D, Chan RJ, Rickard CM, Byrnes J. Performance of EQ5D-5L and AHPEQS for measuring outcomes and experiences of patients with peripherally inserted central catheters: a secondary analysis. Qual Life Res. 2026 May 3;35(6):150. doi: 10.1007/s11136-026-04264-2. PMID: 42070183; PMCID: PMC13136200.