POEM — Patient Oriented Eczema Measure

Commercial users must pay a per patient fee to use POEM – please visit MICRA Gateway for more information about licensing.

Non-commercial users should let us know how they are planning to use POEM via email at cebd@nottingham.ac.uk. 

Each of the seven questions carries equal weight and the responses are scored from 0 to 4 as detailed below: 

• 0 = no days
• 1 = 1-2 days
• 2 = 3-4 days
• 3 = 5-6 days
• 4 = Every day

To help patients and clinicians to understand their POEM scores, the following bandings have been established (see reference section below): 

• Clear or almost clear = 0 to 2;
• Mild eczema = 3 to 7;
• Moderate eczema = 8 to 16;
• Severe eczema = 17 to 24;
• Very severe = 25 to 28

• If one question is left unanswered this is scored 0 and the scores are summed and expressed as usual out of a maximum of 28
• If more than one question is left unanswered the questionnaire is not scored
• If two or more response options are selected for a single question, the response option with the highest score should be recorded

Alterations to the layout/presentation (e.g. addition of trial logos) is permitted, however we do not advise making any changes to the wording of the POEM scale as this is likely to change its validity.

Electronic versions of POEM are permitted, however, please note the following:

Our recommendation would be that you do not use mandatory data entry fields for the individual questions on the POEM. This is to ensure the version you create remains as similar as possible to the paper version of POEM - thus allowing comparison of results from different trials.

Additionally, all validation work has been conducted using paper or online versions of the POEM scale that include the wording as specified* and which have allowed missing values to entered.  Changing this to make all questions mandatory could change the psychometric properties of the scale.

*The only changes which may need to be made in converting POEM into an electronic format relate to the instructions for completion. For example, the input method on the paper form states "please circle one response" - it would be acceptable to change this to "please tap" or "select."

We have a limited number of translations, and the ones which we have access to are available for free for non-commercial use on the download section of this webpage.

In the future we hope to provide translations for languages not yet listed. Other organisations (e.g. PROQOLID) may have additional translations of POEM available for purchase.

You do not need a license to translate POEM into another language.

We are keen to make translated versions of the scale available to others in the eczema research community, so we would appreciate it if those who create translations would send us a copy to us, and allow us to share it on this webpage (we will acknowledge your contribution). Please also send the certificate of translation (as this contains details of how the translation was produced).