Cognitive interviews guide design of a new CAM patient expectations questionnaire
Affiliation
Group Health Research Institute, 1730 Minor Avenue, Suite 1600, Seattle WA 98101, USADepartment of Family and Community Medicine, University of Arizona, 1450 N Cherry Avenue, Tucson AZ 85719, USA
Center for Community Health and Evaluation, Group Health Research Institute, 1730 Minor Avenue, Suite 1600, Seattle WA 98101, USA
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Box 356560, Seattle WA 98195-6560, USA
Issue Date
2014Keywords
Cognitive interviewsQuestionnaires
Expectations
Low back pain
Acupuncture
Chiropractic
Massage therapy
Yoga
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BioMed CentralCitation
Sherman et al. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2014, 14:39 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/14/39Rights
© 2014 Sherman et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0).Collection Information
This item is part of the UA Faculty Publications collection. For more information this item or other items in the UA Campus Repository, contact the University of Arizona Libraries at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
BACKGROUND:No consistent relationship exists between pre-treatment expectations and therapeutic benefit from various complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies in clinical trials. However, many different expectancy measures have been used in those studies, with no validated questionnaires clearly focused on CAM and pain. We undertook cognitive interviews as part of a process to develop and validate such a questionnaire.METHODS:We reviewed questions about expectations of benefits of acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, or yoga for pain. Components of the questions - verbs, nouns, response options, terms and phrases describing back pain - were identified. Using seven different cognitive interview scripts, we conducted 39 interviews to evaluate how individuals with chronic low back pain understood these individual components in the context of expectancy questions for a therapy they had not yet received. Chosen items were those with the greatest agreement and least confusion among participants, and were closest to the meanings intended by the investigators.RESULTS:The questionnaire drafted for psychometric evaluation had 18 items covering various domains of expectancy. "Back pain" was the most consistently interpreted descriptor for this condition. The most understandable response options were 0-10 scales, a structure used throughout the questionnaire, with 0 always indicating no change, and 10 anchored with an absolute descriptor such as "complete relief". The use of words to describe midpoints was found to be confusing. The word "expect" held different and shifting meanings for participants. Thus paired items comparing "hope" and "realistically expect" were chosen to evaluate 5 different aspects of treatment expectations (back painback dysfunction and global effects
impact of back pain on specific areas of life
sleep, mood, and energy
coping). "Impact of back pain" on various areas of life was found to be a consistently meaningful concept, and more global than "interference".CONCLUSIONS:Cognitive interviews identified wordings with considerable agreement among both participants and investigators. Some items widely used in clinical studies had different meanings to participants than investigators, or were confusing to participants. The final 18-item questionnaire is undergoing psychometric evaluation with goals of streamlining as well as identifying best items for use when questionnaire length is constrained.
EISSN
1472-6882Version
Final published versionAdditional Links
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/14/39ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1186/1472-6882-14-39
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © 2014 Sherman et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0).