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Eliciting psychotic symptoms using a semi-structured diagnostic interview. The importance of collateral sources of information in a first-admission sample.

This study addressed the importance of medical record information in determining the presence of psychotic symptoms in first-admission patients. A sample of 232 first-admission inpatients screened for psychotic symptoms by facility personnel was administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID) followed by a medical record review and interview with a significant other. Medical records were unavailable for sixteen patients. These patients were more often female, married, and more suspicious than patients whose records were reviewed. Of those having interviews and record reviews, 49 showed no clear evidence of psychosis. The remainder were divided into three groups: 97 subjects who revealed all of their psychotic symptoms during the interview (SCID-ALL); 61 who revealed only some of their delusions or hallucinations during the interview (SCID-PART); and 25 who revealed none of this information during the interview but whose records clearly described psychosis (SCID-NONE). The three groups were reasonably similar demographically and with respect to clinical history. Clinically, at the time of interview, SCID-NONE subjects were less often still psychotic, were rated on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale as less depressed, more withdrawn, less cooperative and less severely ill, and had poorer insight ratings on the Hamilton Depression Scale.

Adult↗

Assessing inner-city patients' hospital experiences. A controlled trial of telephone interviews versus mailed surveys.

OBJECTIVES: Obtaining accurate and representative patient-centered data may be difficult among poor, inner-city patients because of changing addresses, variable access to telephones, and a higher prevalence of illiteracy than in the populations in which many survey instruments were developed and tested. Assumptions about the usefulness of mailed surveys versus telephone interviews may not hold for the urban poor. Therefore, identifying the most efficient mode of survey administration in this population becomes an important methodological question. METHODS: We conducted a randomized trial of patients discharged from the inpatient medicine service of an urban teaching hospital to compare telephone interview with mailed self-administration of a detailed instrument for measuring patients' experiences with hospital care. Our primary outcomes were response rate, missing data, and data collection costs. Patients were excluded if they were not discharged to home or were mentally or physically unable to complete mailed or telephone interviews. The research assistant contacted eligible patients while hospitalized, informed them of the postdischarge survey, and obtained current phone numbers and addresses. Patients then were randomized to receive a 116-item satisfaction survey via one of two survey methods: mail-first (mailed surveys with follow-up on nonrespondents by telephone) or telephone-first (telephone interviews with follow-up of nonrespondents by mail). RESULTS: Of the 252 patients enrolled, 130 were randomized to the mail-first and 122 to the telephone-first method. Response rates were higher with the telephone-first (73%) compared with the mail-first method (50%; P < 0.0001). Surveys obtained by the telephone-first method had fewer missing data (0.7 +/- 2.39) for those items not involved in skip patterns compared with the mail-first method (7.1 +/- 12.3; P < 0.001) and were 42% less expensive per completed survey ($26.32 versus $37.35; P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: In this survey of patients served by an urban teaching hospital, a strategy of telephone interviews with mail follow-up proved less expensive and yielded a higher response rate with more complete data than using a method where mailed surveys were followed by back-up telephone interviews. In addition, we believe that the improved response rate for telephone interviews compared with those reported in the literature for similar populations is the result of informing inpatients of the survey and obtaining telephone numbers and addresses in the hospital.

Female↗

The effects of recall on reporting injury and poisoning episodes in the National Health Interview Survey.

OBJECTIVE: To examine effects of length of time between injury or poisoning and interview on the number of reported injury and poisoning episodes in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). (Hereinafter, both injuries and poisonings will be referred to as "injuries".) DESIGN: The NHIS collects data continuously on medically attended injuries occurring to family members during the three months before interview. Time between injury and interview was established by subtracting the reported injury date from the interview date. Values were multiply imputed for the 25% of the episodes for which dates were only partially reported. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: An analysis of mean square error (MSE) was used to quantify the extent of errors in estimated annual numbers of injuries and to compare the contributions of bias and variance to these errors. RESULTS: The lowest estimated MSEs for annualized estimates for all injuries and for less severe injuries were attained when the annualized estimates were based on 3--6 elapsed cumulative weeks between injury and interview. The average weighted number of injuries reported per week per year was 8% lower in later weeks (weeks 6--13) than in earlier weeks (weeks 1--5) for all episodes, and 24% lower in later weeks than in earlier weeks for contusions/superficial injuries, with both differences being statistically significant. For fractures, however, the averages in the two periods were statistically similar. CONCLUSIONS: The error associated with the estimated annual number of injuries was large with a three month reference period for all injuries and for less severe injuries. Limiting analysis to episodes with up to five weeks between injury and interview has statistical, intuitive, and analytic appeal for all injuries and for less severe injuries.

Adolescent↗

Validity and accuracy of interview and diary data on children's medical utilisation in The Netherlands.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To assess the validity and accuracy of children's medical utilisation estimates from a health interview and diary and the possible consequences for morbidity estimates. The influence of recall bias and respondent characteristics on the reporting levels was also investigated. DESIGN: Validity study, with the medical record of the general practitioner (GP) as gold standard. In a health interview and three week diary estimates of medical utilisation of children were asked and compared with a GP's medical record. SETTING: General community and primary care centre in the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS: Parents of 1,805 children and 161 GPs. MAIN RESULTS: The sensitivity of the interview (0.84) is higher than the diary (0.72), while specificity and kappa are higher in the diary (0.96; 0.64) than in the interview (0.91; 0.5-8). Recall bias, expressed as telescoping and heaping, is present in the interview data. Prevalence estimates of all morbidity are much higher in the interview, except for skin problems. Compared with a parental diary more consultations are reported exclusively by the GP for children from ethnic minorities (OR 1.6), jobless (OR 2.3), and less educated mothers (OR 2.6). CONCLUSIONS: Estimates of medical utilisation rates of children are critically influenced by the method of data collection used. Interviews are prone to introduce recall bias, while diaries should only be used in populations with an adequate level of literacy. It is recommended that medical records are used, as they produce most consistent estimates.

Child↗

A randomised controlled trial of postal versus interviewer administration of a questionnaire measuring satisfaction with, and use of, services received in the year before death.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To develop a short form of an interview schedule used successfully in previous national surveys of care for the dying, and to investigate the effect of administering it by post on response rate, response bias and on the nature of responses to questions. DESIGN: Randomised controlled trial. SETTING: An inner London health authority. PARTICIPANTS: Informants (person registering death) of random sample of cancer deaths between June 1995 and July 1996. MAIN RESULTS: The shortened questionnaire (VOICES) has 158 questions. Response rate did not differ significantly between postal and interview groups (interview; 56% (69 of 123), postal: 52% (161 of 308). Responders in the two groups did not differ in terms of their sociodemographic characteristics. Postal questionnaires had significantly more missing data, particularly on questions about service provision and satisfaction with services. Responses to questions differed between the groups on 11 of 158 questions. Interview group respondents were more likely to give top ranking responses to questions on service satisfaction and symptom control. CONCLUSIONS: Postal questionnaires are an acceptable alternative to interviews in retrospective post-bereavement surveys of care for the dying, at least in terms of response rate and response bias. However, the increased costs of interview surveys need to be balanced against the fact that postal questionnaires result in more missing data, and possibly less reliable answers to some questions. Caution is needed in combining results from the two data collection methods as interview respondents gave more positive answers to some questions.

Adult↗

Assessment of occupational exposure in a population based case-control study: comparing postal questionnaires with personal interviews.

BACKGROUND: In case-control studies, data collection on occupational exposures by means of personal interviews is usually costly and time consuming. As detailed semiquantitative information on exposure from these interviews often has to be dichotomised in the analyses due to the small numbers of exposed subjects, the question is raised whether simple postal questionnaires yield the same results for occupational exposure in epidemiological studies as job specific personal interviews. METHODS: Data on occupational exposures during pregnancy were compared from 121 women who both completed a checklist with 17 occupational exposure categories in a postal questionnaire and were personally interviewed with specific questions on exposure with details of job and task. kappa Coefficients were calculated as measures of agreement corrected for chance, and sensitivity and positive predictive values as measures of validity and usefulness, with the exposure assessment based on information from the interview as the gold standard. RESULTS: Values of kappa varied from 0.09 for domestic cleaning agents to 0.70 for pesticides, indicating only low to moderate agreement between the questionnaire and the interview. Sensitivity ranged from 38% to 100%, with the highest values for agents used by healthcare workers. Positive predictive values were lower, between 9% and 63%, which indicates that overreporting was more common than underreporting in the questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS: These results underline the high potential for misclassification of occupational exposure in studies based on questionnaires. Therefore, postal questionnaires are not considered an alternative to job and task specific personal interviews in epidemiological studies.

Adult↗

Validity of telephone interview data for vascular disease risk factors in a racially mixed urban community: the Northern Manhattan Stroke Study.

The aims of our study were to assess the validity and reliability of a telephone survey instrument designed to measure vascular disease risk factors and to assess whether these measurements were influenced by age, gender, race/ethnicity, or other sociodemographic variables. Subjects were sampled and interviewed using random digit dialing methodology from the multiethnic community of northern Manhattan. For the validity study, 261 consecutive subjects were clinically assessed in-person within 60 days of the telephone interview. A retest reliability study of the telephone interview was conducted in 92 randomly selected subjects within 30 days of the initial interview. The telephone interview instrument had a sensitivity of more than 55% and a specificity of 74% or greater for various vascular disease risk factors. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value did not vary significantly or systematically among whites, blacks, and Hispanics, but subjects with access to health care were more likely to provide valid data. The reliability substudy indicated a good reliability for the telephone interview. These results support the validity of telephone interviews for estimating the prevalence of vascular risk factors in urban populations.

Age Factors↗

Use of audio computer-assisted self-interviews to assess tuberculosis-related risk behaviors.

UNLABELLED: The objective of this study was to compare self-reported tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk factors obtained from computer-assisted questionnaires and interviewer-assisted questionnaires among participants of a needle exchange program. Between June 1998 and May 1999, needle exchange program participants requesting tuberculosis screening underwent interviews regarding demographics and risk factors for tuberculosis and HIV infection. The first 190 participants underwent traditional interviewer-assisted questionnaires, whereas the remaining 92 underwent computer-assisted questionnaires. Data were analyzed by interview technique using odds ratios (OR) and multiple logistic regression. Among 282 participants, demographic characteristics, health status, HIV serostatus, visits to homeless shelters, alcohol intake, and cigarette smoking were all similar by interview technique. However, respondents receiving computer-assisted questionnaires were more likely than those receiving interviewer-assisted questionnaires to report smoking marijuana (OR = 5.56), crack (OR = 1.88), and heroin (OR = 2.60); as well as sharing cocaine smoking equipment (OR = 4.49), sharing heroin smoking equipment (OR = 2.85), "shotgunning" (OR = 4.48), and visiting crack houses (OR = 4.39). In the final multivariate model, respondents receiving computer-assisted questionnaires were more likely to report "shotgunning" and visiting a crack house relative to respondents receiving interviewer-assisted questionnaires. In conclusion, increased odds of high-risk behaviors for tuberculosis and HIV infection among computer-assisted questionnaire respondents support the use of computer-assisted questionnaires to ascertain risk behavior data for both tuberculosis and HIV. KEYWORDS: tuberculosis; HIV; self-report; drug use; computer-assisted

Baltimore↗

The Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale: an interview-based assessment and its relationship to cognition, real-world functioning, and functional capacity.

OBJECTIVE: Interview-based measures of cognition may serve as potential coprimary measures in clinical trials of cognitive-enhancing drugs for schizophrenia. However, there is no such valid scale available. Interviews of patients and their clinicians are not valid in that they are unrelated to patients' levels of cognitive impairment as assessed by cognitive performance tests. This study describes the reliability and validity of a new interview-based assessment of cognition, the Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale (SCoRS), that involves interviews with patients and informants. METHOD: Sixty patients with schizophrenia were assessed with the SCoRS and three potential validators of an interview-based measure of cognition: cognitive performance, as measured by the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS); real-world functioning, as measured by the Independent Living Skills Inventory; and functional capacity, as measured by the University of California, San Diego, Performance-Based Skills Assessment (UPSA). RESULTS: The SCoRS global ratings were significantly correlated with composite scores of cognitive performance and functional capacity and with ratings of real-world functioning. Multiple regression analyses suggested that SCoRS global ratings predicted unique variance in real-world functioning beyond that predicted by the performance measures. CONCLUSIONS: An interview-based measure of cognition that included informant reports was related to cognitive performance as well as real-world functioning. Interview-based measures of cognition, such as the SCoRS, may be valid coprimary measures for clinical trials assessing cognitive change and may also aid clinicians desiring to assess patients' level of cognitive impairment.

Activities of Daily Living↗

Assessing axis II disorders by informant interview.

Although much of personality disorder research depends on diagnostic data obtained directly from patients, this approach has rarely been compared to interviews with knowledgeable informants. The purpose of this study was to determine the diagnostic agreement between these two assessment methods, as well as their relative contribution to the formulation of consensus diagnoses. Sixty-two psychiatric patients were assessed directly with the Structured Interview for DSM-III Personality Disorders (SIDP), and were asked to nominate an informant--either a family member or friend--to provide information about the patient in an interview with the same instrument. Informant interviews were conducted blind to patient-based information whenever feasible, and diagnostic consensus was achieved by an independent review of all available data by a senior clinician. Diagnostic agreement between patient-based and informant-based personality disorder interview was poor, confirming the findings of two previous studies. Information obtained from patients tended to be given greater weight in formulating consensus diagnoses than information provided by informants. However, about one quarter of diagnostic disagreements were resolved in favor of informant-based information. In contrast to a previous study, the inclusion of informant information did not appear to reveal greater psychopathology in patients. We conclude that supplementing direct patient interview with data provided by a knowledgeable informant appears to enhance the resolution of some personality disorder diagnoses. The utility of informant interviews may depend on an analysis of the costs and benefits of this additional degree of descriptive refinement.

Adult↗

Is there a difference between CAGE interviews and written CAGE questionnaires?

BACKGROUND: The CAGE questionnaire is a frequently studied and used instrument for screening of alcohol problems. It was developed and tested as a written questionnaire, but, clinically, it is often used as an oral interview. No comparisons have been made between the results of a written and an oral CAGE. This study attempted to (1) compare the results of a written CAGE questionnaire and a CAGE interview, and (2) compare the efficiency of using a simple open-ended question about drinking habits before asking the CAGE and asking the CAGE without an introduction. METHODS: All patients who attended a general internal medicine, cardiology, or hepatology clinic were classified according to the week of the consultation, as follows: group I (week 1), patients completed a written CAGE and were subsequently interviewed during a normal consultation by a physician, who also asked the CAGE questions; group II (week 2), a physician first interviewed the patients, including the CAGE, and subsequently patients completed a written CAGE; and group III (week 3), patients completed a CAGE interview after an open-ended introduction ("What do you drink during the day?"). Kappa values were used to compare the answers of the written and oral CAGE interviews (groups II and I). Nonparametric ANOVA was used to compare the results of group III and the oral interview of group II. RESULTS: Mean age was comparable between the groups, gender ratio was comparable between groups I and III, but there were fewer males in group II. Comparison of all written CAGEs with the oral CAGEs in the same patients resulted in an accuracy of 0.91 and a kappa value of 0.75 (95% CI, 0.66-0.84). No significant difference could be found between the results of the oral CAGE with or without an open-ended introduction (p = 0.46). CONCLUSIONS: We found no difference between the oral and the written versions of the CAGE. This is important because most research results originate from written questionnaires. Our results do not support the finding that a different approach to the CAGE questions results in an increasing number of patients in which alcohol problems were detected.

Adult↗

[Cancer patient's satisfaction assessment using the EORTC QLQ-SAT32: comparison between self-assessment and interview response].

BACKGROUND: For pertinent investigation of patient satisfaction it is important to know what type of data collection procedure yields optimal results. In this study, we compared a self- versus interview administration of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) patient satisfaction questionnaire (QLQ-SAT32), noting response and item omission rates. We also assessed the correlation and agreement between responses according to these modalities of questionnaire administration. METHODS: 123 patients recruited in two anti-cancer Centers in France were asked to complete the QLQ-SAT32 at home within 2 weeks of hospital discharge and were randomly allocated to participate in a telephone interview-administration of the QLQ-SAT32, either before or after self-completing the QLQ-SAT32. RESULTS: 104 patients completed both modalities of questionnaire administration. Agreement proved excellent for the doctors' and nurses' subscales and satisfactory for the services' subscale and the general satisfaction single item. However, a significant difference in response rate showed up between Centers (different interviewers) and the interview modality revealed an item omission rate higher than for the self-administration modality. CONCLUSION: Self- and interview-administration of the QLQ-SAT32 provided similar responses however different response rate between interviewers and higher item omission rate in interviews suggests a biasing effect of that modality of data collection.

Adolescent↗

The application and interviewing process for surgical house officership.

The application and interviewing procedure for surgical house officership is an important process to both the medical student and the clinical department. Up-to-date, informative, and honest appraisals of the training programs under evaluation must be obtained. A survey was undertaken to compare and contrast students' and surgical department members' perceptions of nationwide surgical residency application procedures. It is concluded from this sampling that the majority of medical students applying to university-sponsored surgical training programs and the training institutions themselves generally are satisfied with the present application and interviewing experience. Certain areas in need of reform were elucidated, and the following recommendations are offered to aid in the development of a more effective process: (1) if possible, the descriptive information brochure should be updated on a yearly basis and must be comprehensive in scope; (2) when "en masse" interviewing is conducted, it should be held on a number of dates during the year, not just one, and a limited time for "walk-in" interviews should be allowed; (3) an opportunity should be available for the spouse or fiance'(e) to accompany the applicant; (4) an interviewer should prepare for an interview by having read the applicant's file beforehand; and (5) the interviewing schedule should be arranged so that the applicant is able to meet either the department chairperson and/or program director.

General Surgery↗

The Cornella Health Interview Survey Follow-Up (CHIS.FU) Study: design, methods, and response rate.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this report is to describe the main characteristics of the design, including response rates, of the Cornella Health Interview Survey Follow-up Study. METHODS: The original cohort consisted of 2,500 subjects (1,263 women and 1,237 men) interviewed as part of the 1994 Cornella Health Interview Study. A record linkage to update the address and vital status of the cohort members was carried out using, first a deterministic method, and secondly a probabilistic one, based on each subject's first name and surnames. Subsequently, we attempted to locate the cohort members to conduct the phone follow-up interviews. A pilot study was carried out to test the overall feasibility and to modify some procedures before the field work began. RESULTS: After record linkage, 2,468 (98.7%) subjects were successfully traced. Of these, 91 (3.6%) were deceased, 259 (10.3%) had moved to other towns, and 50 (2.0%) had neither renewed their last municipal census documents nor declared having moved. After using different strategies to track and to retain cohort members, we traced 92% of the CHIS participants. From them, 1,605 subjects answered the follow-up questionnaire. CONCLUSION: The computerized record linkage maximized the success of the follow-up that was carried out 7 years after the baseline interview. The pilot study was useful to increase the efficiency in tracing and interviewing the respondents.

Adolescent↗

Human rights and interviews.

Regulations from the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare define consent in the conduct of research involving human beings. As requirements expand, these regulations have assumed considerable importance for psychiatric research, including research interviews. The author's experience with one committee on research involving human beings provided the impetus for the present report. Subjects were drawn from a prospective study of couples in a home dialysis program. Thirty couples were systematically interviewed concerning social, personal, medical, and psychiatric history. After completion of the interview, subjects were asked a series of questions concerning their feelings about being interviewed. Although most subjects found the experience to be pleasant, nearly half believed it might upset other patients. However, none believed any long-term harm could come from the conduct of the interview itself. It is therefore concluded that the potential harm of structured interviews in severely medically ill patients and their spouses is essentially nil.

Attitude↗

Clinical usefulness of sodium amobarbital interviewing.

We report a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study utilizing a within-subjects design on 20 hospitalized, psychiatric patients who participated in sodium amobarbital interviews to determine if the drug has a specific effect in eliciting clinically useful information. The patients selected had difficulty communicating with their primary therapists during the postadmission, diagnostic interviews. Two raters completed a Hamilton Depression Scale, a New Haven Schizophrenia Index, and a Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale after each interview. Although both the amobarbital and saline interviews were moderately useful in obtaining new information, we found no significant difference in the primary therapists' assessments of clinical usefulness. In addition, the drug interview did not uncover material that would aid in the differential diagnosis between depression and schizophrenia. There was, however, a significant negative correlation between the assessment of general usefulness and the time interval between admission and interviewing. We report our only exception, a case of catatonic schizophrenia, in which the patient responded specifically to the drug.

Adult↗

A comparative study of competitive and social reinforcement models of interview behavior.

While psychotherapy typically is conceptualized as a social reinforcement process, Haley suggests that most interview behavior is predicted better by a competitive model of social interaction. Davis (1971) compared the two models by having interviewers follow reinforcing or competitive response programs and comparing the frequencies with which interviewees initiated interactions under the contrasting conditions. His results suggested that the competitive model predicted interviewee behavior more accurately. This study attempted both to replicate Davis' work with a different S sample (N = 48) (psychiatric inpatients as opposed to college students) and to extend it by using both male and female interviewers. Few of Davis' findings were replicated. Message frequency requests were equal in the competitive and reinforcing conditions, both of which induced more requests than a mixed interviewer program. The interactions that Davis had found between interviewer programs and Ss' classification on the repression-sensitization dimension were not significant. It is suggested that Davis' results may be limited to his college student sample and apparently do not generalize to those individuals more likely to be involved in therapeutic interviews.

Adolescent↗

Estimating the prevalence of mental and somatic disorders in the community: aims and methods of the German National Health Interview and Examination Survey.

This paper outlines the principal aims and design of the German National Health Interview and Examination Survey, mental health supplement (GHS-MHS), the first nationwide, epidemiological study of both somatic and mental health in Germany on a representative sample of 4,181 subjects in the community. Both the broader context of the study--in particular its methodological relation to the social and somatic core survey of the German National Health Interview and Examination Survey (GHS-CS)--and the internal methodology of the mental health supplement (GHS-MHS) are presented. The study's strategies and method are derived from a consideration of important theoretical issues arising from epidemiological studies in the field of public health. The main instrument used to assess diagnoses of mental disorders was a standardized diagnostic interview for mental disorders (following DSM-IV (CIDI)) applied by clinically trained interviewers. This diagnostic interview was supplemented by modules on comorbidity, help seeking, treatment and impairment. Somatic health diagnoses were made using an integrated approach including self-report measures, a standardized clinical interview, and laboratory measures. Findings on sampling, response rate, weighting and sample characteristics are presented. Critical issues are discussed, including the scientific objectives that have been achieved by the study. Overall, the GHS core survey and its mental health supplement provide the mental health research community with complex data that allow for high-quality analysis of mental disorders and associations with somatic disorders.

Adolescent↗