High Level of Agreement between Electronic and Paper Mode of Administration of a Thyroid-Specific Patient-Reported Outcome, ThyPRO

Abstract

Introduction and Purpose: Use of electronic questionnaires to collect health-related quality-of-life data has evolved as an alternative to paper questionnaires. For the electronic questionnaire to be used interchangeably with the validated paper questionnaire, measurement properties similar to the original must be demonstrated. The aim of the present study was to assess the equivalence between the paper version and the electronic version of the thyroid-related quality-of-life questionnaire ThyPRO. Methods: Patients with Graves' hyperthyroidism or autoimmune hypothyroidism in a clinically stable phase were included. The patients were recruited from two endocrine outpatient centers. All patients completed both versions in a randomized test-retest set-up. Scores were compared using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), paired t tests and Bland-Altman plots. Limits of agreement were compared with data from a previous paper-paper test-retest study. Results: 104 patients were included. ICCs were generally high for the 13 scales, ranging from 0.76 to 0.95. There was a small but significant difference in the scale score between paper and electronic administration for the Cosmetic complaints scale, but no differences were found for any other scale. Bland-Altman plots showed similar limits of agreement compared to the earlier test-retest study of the paper version of ThyPRO. Conclusion: Based on our analyses using ICCs, paired t tests and Bland-Altman plots, we found adequate agreement between the paper and electronic questionnaires. The statistically significant difference in score found in the Cosmetic complaints scale is small and probably clinically insignificant.

<p>Evaluation of the Paper and Smartphone Versions of the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self-Report (QIDS-SR16) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in Depressed Patients in China</p>

“…It takes 5-7 minutes to complete. The scores may be graded as mild (score of 6-10), moderate (score of [11][12][13][14][15], severe (score of [16][17][18][19][20], and very severe (score of 21-27). 5 The PHQ-9 is a multipurpose instrument that assists in the screening and measurement of depressive symptoms within the past 2 weeks.…”

“…Care is needed when migrating questionnaires to electronic formats to ensure that measurement equivalence with the original is demonstrated and that the measurement characteristics of the scale remain unchanged. 11 The available research on measurement equivalence mainly aimed to examine the factors influencing the validity of the results when migrating from paper to electronic formats, the operability of electronic versions, and questionnaires regarding somatic diseases and health conditions, [12][13][14][15] but direct comparisons between electronic and paper versions of psychometric questionnaires are rare. These studies showed that the demographic characteristics of the respondents and the management model of the app would affect the measurement results of the electronic versions.…”

A Prospective Study about the Influence of Selenium Based Supplements on the Autoimmune Process Evolution and the Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Autoimmune Thyroiditis

“…For a more accurate investigation in future studies, the serum levels of Selenium should also be investigated before including the patients in the study, because Selenium defficiency could be a major factor that contributes to a higher benefit of Selenium-supplementation therapy in autoimmune thyroiditis patients. For a better compliance from the patients and a more facile gathering of data from the questionnaire, we recommend implementing an electronic version of the questionnaire, as data from recent studies indicated this could improve the process of researching the health-related quality of life aspects [16].…”

Perspectives of online surveys in dermatology

“…Surveys are considered mode equivalent when participants give the same responses to the same questions administered by different modes . Previous reports showed that such differences were minimal between online and paper surveys, even when respondents had to report sensitive behaviours …”