Psychosocial and Behavioral Instruments for Epidemiologic Studies
There are a host of validated instruments publicly available for the clinical researcher designing a study that needs to assess various psychological, social, or behavioral characteristics of the participants via self-report. This short post details a few of these that I've used in my work, with links to the instrument, and a brief mention of how to operationalize the results for analysis. Some of these are the short form versions of longer instruments. A great source for additional instruments is the IN-CAM research network Outcomes Database. Be sure to check that the instrument was validated in the population you intend to survey, otherwise acknowledge this as a study limitation.
EQ-5D-3L
- Principal use: health status and related quality of life (QOL)
- Website: http://www.euroqol.org/ (instrument and protocol)
- Initial validation studies: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10109801; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9366889; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15725977
- Outcome measure: aggregate score
- Outcome type (min,max): categorical (11111,33333)
- Comments: EuroQol 5 dimensions; 243 possible health states defined by XXXXX, where X =(1,2,3) and the higher # is a worse health state
IPAQ
- Principal use: physical activity
- Website: https://sites.google.com/site/theipaq/ (instrument and protocol)
- Initial validation studies: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10925833; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12900694
- Outcome measure: aggregate score
- Outcome type (min,max): continuous or categorical
- Comments: International physical activity questionnaire, last 7 days short form; Continuous measure expressed as MET-minutes by type of activity (walking, moderate, vigorous, and total) and categorical by Low/Moderate/High by type of activity
MPSS
- Principal use: social support
- Website: http://www.yorku.ca/rokada/psyctest/
- Initial validation studies: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1757578; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2280326
- Outcome measure: aggregate score
- Outcome type (min,max): continuous (12,84)
- Comments: Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support; lower score associated with less social support
PHQ2/PHQ9
- Principal use: depressive symptoms
- Website: http://www.phqscreeners.com/
- Initial validation studies: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11556941; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14583691
- Outcome measure: aggregate score
- Outcome type (min,max): PHQ2: continuous (0,6) or categorical (1,2); PHQ9: continuous (0,27) or categorical (1,4)
- Comments: Patient Health Questionnaire, 2 or 9 questions; higher score association with depressive symptoms (not a diagnosis of depression); instrument defined categories
REALM-SF (short form)
- Principal use: health literacy
- Website: http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/quality-patient-safety/quality-resources/tools/literacy/index.html
- Initial validation studies: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18049342
- Outcome measure: aggregate score
- Outcome type (min,max): continuous (0,7) or categorical (1,4)
- Comments: Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine-Short Form; higher score associated with higher literacy; instrument defined categories
Cite: Goldstein ND. Psychosocial and Behavioral Instruments for Epidemiologic Studies. Apr 16, 2015. DOI: 10.17918/goldsteinepi.
