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PROMIS Domains
PROMIS® Measures for Pediatric Self-Report (Ages 8-17)
Computer Adaptive Tests and Short Forms by Domain
PROMIS includes multiple types of measures:
- Computer adaptive tests (CATs)
- Screen-to-CATs
- Short forms (usually 4-8 items)
- Profiles (collection of short forms or computer adaptive tests)
Read about each PROMIS measure type.
The following tables list all PROMIS domains and measures.
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Screen-to-CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emotional Distress – Anxiety | Fear (fearfulness, panic), anxious misery (worry, dread), hyperarousal (tension, nervousness, restlessness), and somatic symptoms related to arousal (racing heart, dizziness). | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Emotional Distress – Depressive Symptoms | Negative mood (sadness, guilt), views of self (self- criticism, worthlessness), and social cognition (loneliness, interpersonal alienation), as well as decreased positive affect and engagement (loss of interest, meaning, and purpose). | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fatigue | Range of symptoms, from mild subjective feelings of tiredness to an overwhelming, debilitating, and sustained sense of exhaustion. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pain Intensity | How much a person hurts. | ✓ | ||
| Pain Interference | Consequences of pain on relevant aspects of one’s life. This includes the extent to which pain hinders engagement with social, cognitive, emotional, physical, and recreational activities. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Peer Relationships | Quality of relationships with friends and other acquaintances. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Physical Function – Mobility | Activities of physical mobility such as getting out of bed or a chair to activities such as running. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
P This measure is an item pool. An item pool is a collection of items that are not scored.
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Screen-to-CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asthma Impact | Asthma-specific symptoms that include cough, wheeze, shortness of breath, and avoidance of triggers. Also, asthma-associated impacts such as missing school or activities with other children. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Itch (PIQ-C) | Perceptions of itch (pruritus) symptoms and their impact on children’s daily living. The PIQ-C includes items for children with skin conditions. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pain Behavior | Behaviors that typically indicate to others that an individual is experiencing pain. These actions or reactions can be verbal or nonverbal, and involuntary or deliberate. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pain Quality | Specific physical sensations and affective components associated with pain. Because pain can be felt and described in so many ways, this category of pain contains a variety of attributes, such as perceived temperature (e.g., cold), sensations (e.g., throbbing), and perceived affective qualities of pain (e.g., uncomfortable). | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Pain Quality – Affective | Perceived affective qualities of pain (e.g., uncomfortable). | ✓ | ||
| Pain Quality – Sensory | Perceived sensations (e.g., throbbing) associated with pain. | ✓ | ||
| Physical Activity | Self-reported capability rather than actual performance of physical activities. This includes the functioning of one’s upper extremities (dexterity), lower extremities (walking or mobility), and central regions (neck, back), as well as instrumental activities of daily living. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Physical Function – Upper Extremity | Activities that require use of the upper extremity including shoulder, arm, and hand activities. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Physical Stress Experiences | The physically experienced sensations associated with responses to internal or external challenges including arousal, agitation, pain, and gastrointestinal distress. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Sleep Disturbance | Assesses reported thoughts of one’s sleep quality, and perceived difficulties with falling or staying asleep. Conceptual facets include sleep quality, sleep onset, and sleep continuity. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Sleep-Related Impairment | Assesses perceptions of sleepiness during usual awake hours and reported impairments during the day associated with sleep problems or daytime sleepiness. Conceptual facets include daytime sleepiness, sleep offset, impact: cognitive, impact: activities, and impact: emotional. | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Strength Impact | A child’s capacity to perform functional activities of daily living that require significant amount of muscle force generation. | ✓ | ✓ |
PThis measure is an item pool. An item pool is a collection of items that are not scored.
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cognitive Function | Difficulties in cognitive abilities (e.g., memory, attention, and decision making), and difficulties in the application of such abilities to everyday tasks (e.g., planning, organizing, calculating, remembering, and learning). | ✓ | ✓ |
| Emotional Distress – Anger | Angry mood (irritability, frustration), negative social cognitions (interpersonal sensitivity, envy, disagreeableness), and efforts to control anger. | ✓ | |
| Life Satisfaction | Global and context-specific evaluations of a child’s life. Conceptual facets include global evaluations of life, context-specific evaluations of life, assessments of life conditions, and comparisons of one’s life with others’ lives. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Meaning and Purpose | A child’s sense that life has purpose and there are good reasons for living, including hopefulness, optimism, goal-directedness, and feelings that one’s life is worthy. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Positive Affect | A child’s momentary positive or rewarding affective experiences, such as feelings and mood associated with pleasure, joy, elation, contentment, pride, affection, happiness, engagement, and excitement. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Psychological Stress Experiences | The thoughts or feelings about self and the world in the context of environmental or internal challenges. Items represent 3 facets of psychological stress reactions: feeling overwhelmed, perceived lack of control of capacity to manage one’s life, and cognitive-perceptual disruption. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stigma | Perceptions of self and publicly enacted negativity, prejudice, and discrimination as a result of disease-related manifestations. Bank includes generic items for children with chronic conditions. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stigma – Skin | Perceptions of self and publicly enacted negativity, prejudice, and discrimination as a result of disease-related manifestations. Bank includes generic items for children with chronic conditions, as well as skin-specific items. | ✓ | ✓ |
SThis measure is a scale (items are not a subset from an item bank and the measure produces a score).
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family Relationships | The subjective (affective, emotional, cognitive) experience of being involved with one’s family, feeling like an important person in the family, of feeling accepted and cared for, and feeling that family members, especially parents, can be trusted and depended on for help and understanding. | ✓ | ✓ |
| Domain | Definition | CAT (# Items in Bank) | Short Form or Scale (# Items) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global Health | Overall evaluation of one’s physical and mental health. | ✓ |
S This measure is a scale (items are not a subset from an item bank and the measure produces a score).
*The 9-item Pediatric Global Health measure is named “7+2”. It produces scores for Global Health, Fatigue, and Pain Interference.
| Profile Measure | Definition | CATs or Short Forms | Total Measure Length # items |
|---|---|---|---|
| PROMIS Pediatric-25 Profile | A collection of 4-item short forms assessing anxiety, depressive symptoms, fatigue, pain interference, physical function-mobility, and peer relationships, as well as a single pain intensity item. | Short Forms | 25 |
| PROMIS Pediatric-36 Profile | A collection of 5- and 6-item short forms assessing anxiety, depressive symptoms, fatigue, pain interference, physical function-mobility, and peer relationships, as well as a single pain intensity item. | Short Forms | 36 |
| PROMIS Pediatric-48 Profile | A collection of 7- and 8-item short forms assessing anxiety, depressive symptoms, fatigue, pain interference, physical function-mobility, and peer relationships, as well as a single pain intensity item. | Short Forms | 48 |
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Last updated: September 14, 2026