(Take-home) Mid-Term Exam

Review the case-studies, focusing on case-study 6: Computer Assisted Quality of Life and Symptom Assessment for Patients with Chronic Illness using survey data. Read the study docs and address the following 3 items:

  • Reproduce and explain the following graphs:
  • Histogram
    Histogram of CHRONICDISEASESCORE for patients with disease score exceeding one.
    Histogram
    AGE vs. CHRONICDISEASESCORE
    Histogram
    AGE vs. CHRONICDISEASESCORE by QOL_Q_01 level

  • Among patients with chronic illness (CHRONICDISEASESCORE ≥ 1), are QoL scores (PROMIS-QOL scale) strongly correlated with comorbidity indices (provider-reported)?

  • Is the Charlson Comorbidity Index strongly correlated with patient-reported symptom burden (MSAS-SF)?

Remember to include the HW header identifying you on top of your report. Also include an appendix with your complete R-code and other technical content. The table below summarizes some of the important variables you need to work with and the code snippet loades in the data directly into Rstudio.

ChronicDisease_QoL_data <- read.csv('https://umich.instructure.com/files/481332/download?download_frd=1', header=T); attach(ChronicDisease_QoL_data); head(ChronicDisease_QoL_data)


Variable Class Values Data Elements
PROMIS-QOL (global quality of life) 1 Excellent
2 Very good
3 Good
4 Fair
5 Poor
6 No answer (Patient refused)
QOL_Q_01 Health rating
QOL_Q_02 Quality of life rating
QOL_Q_03 Physical health rating
QOL_Q_04 Mental health rating
QOL_Q_05 Satisfaction with social activities and relationships rating
QOL_Q_06 Extent able to carry out everyday physical activities
QOL_Q_07 Pain rating in the past seven days
(provider-reported) Charlson Comorbidity Index Numeric 0-10 (-9 indicates missing score) CHARLSON_SCORE [calculated using ICD9 codes from EMR for prior 3 months]
MSAS-SF (Memorial Symptom Assessment- Short Form) 1 No, not at all
2 Yes, a little bit
3 Yes, somewhat
4 Yes, quite a bit
5 Yes, very much
6 No answer (Patient refused)
MSA_Q_01 Lack of energy in the past week
MSA_Q_02 Pain in the past week
MSA_Q_03 Cough in the past week
MSA_Q_04 Dry mouth in the past week
MSA_Q_05 Nausea in the past week
MSA_Q_06 Feel drowsy in the past week
MSA_Q_07 Feel bloated in the past week
MSA_Q_08 Vomiting in the past week
MSA_Q_09 Shortness of breath in the past
Chronic Disease Score Numeric 0-19 (-9 indicates missing score) CHRONIC_DISEASE_SCORE [calculated using medication orders from EMR for prior 6 months]
See the complete variable definitions here.

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