Differences in medical care satisfaction of patients with “functional” vs “organic” esophageal diseases, Italian validation of the PPRS SF questionnaire

Patient-physician relationship (PPR) plays a key role in modern healthcare, especially within gastrointestinal medical practice. In 2017 Kurlander et al. developed a Patient-Physician-Relationship-Scale (PPRS), a questionnaire used to assess the patients' medical care-satisfaction. The PPRS was later simplified by Drossman et al. in 2021 by creating a PPRS-SF (short form). This study aimed to validate the PPRS-SF in Italian and to administer it to patients with "functional" and "organic" esophageal diseases, to highlight the differences in the PPR between the two categories. The process of validation was carried out following a standardized forward-backward procedure and each step was overseen by a Rome foundation independent clinical monitor. The Italian version of the PPRS-SF was then administered to 50 Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE), 53 Achalasia, 48 Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) and 44 esophageal disorders of gut brain interaction (eDGBI) patients. In eDGBI and GERD, the degree of patients' satisfaction was significantly lower. Between a score of -36 and + 36, the mean score for patients with EoE was 30.20 (± 9.78), for Achalasia 23.78 (± 19.9); for GERD 20.46 (± 16.03) and for esophageal DGBI 17.91 (± 18.41). Moreover, there was a negative significant correlation between the PPR and age (R=- 0.208). This study validated the Italian version of the PPRS-SF questionnaire and showed that the patients' diagnosis together with other factors such as their age, can affect the PPR. In particular, patients with DGBI and older patients reported lower scores than the ones with organic diseases and the younger ones, respectively.