To investigate the impact of emphasizing the word 'bothered' in the instructions of the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 assessments on scores.
Approach:
Study Design: A randomized clinical trial involving 200 adults with depression or anxiety, assessing the influence of instructional emphasis on questionnaire scores.
Intervention: Participants completed the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 twice, with the second administration emphasizing 'bothered' for the intervention group.
Key Findings:
The intervention group showed a 2.6-point greater reduction in scores compared to the control group, as reported by Young et al.
The effect size was large (1.1), indicating potentially clinically meaningful differences, according to the study.
Interpretation:
The study indicates that emphasizing 'bothered' may influence scores on the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 assessments.
Limitations:
The emphasis on 'bothered' was only applied during the second administration, which may affect interpretation of results.
The study used interviewer administration, which may introduce bias compared to self-completion methods.
Conclusion:
The findings suggest the importance of instructional wording in psychometric assessments.
