Measurement of overall and disease-specific health status: does the order of questionnaires make a difference?
OBJECTIVE
This study was designed to detect any effect of order when modules on disease-specific and overall health status are combined in an outcomes research questionnaire.


METHODS
Men with symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) were prospectively enrolled in a clinical trial of an educational intervention in Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, a prepaid group practice. Within the trial, 392 consecutive men were randomized to one of two versions of a baseline questionnaire. One had a 38-item module on BPH-specific health status first, followed by a 30-item module on overall health status; the other had the modules in reverse order. Scores were compared for three BPH-specific scales and eight scales measuring overall health. Data were collected in the form of self-administered questionnaires.


RESULTS
Comparing the groups assigned the two versions of the questionnaire, no significant differences in scores on any of the health status scales were found.


CONCLUSIONS
In this dataset, we could find no evidence of an order effect when modules on BPH-specific and overall health status were combined in different sequences.
Barry
M J
MJ
Medical Practices Evaluation Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA.
Walker-Corkery
E
E
Chang
Y
Y
Tyll
L T
LT
Cherkin
D C
DC
Fowler
F J
FJ
D006125:Group Practice, Prepaid; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014861:Washington