Table 1.

Lessons learned from cognitive testing by item stem and response option

Lesson	Comment
Item stem
Time frame	No consistent understanding of “the last week” or “the last month”; better the last 7 or 30 days
Attention to reference period	Attention to the reference period was poor overall; patients estimate rather than count
Taking “as prescribed”	Understood inconsistently
Understanding of “dose”	Understood consistently
Response option
Visual analogue scales and percents	Both worked poorly
Use of the word “perfect”	Worked poorly
Options that express feelings	Worked poorly
Words vs. numbers	Subjects level of recall is more appropriate to verbal than numerical answers and subjects more comfortable with adjectives and adverbs than numbers as way of providing answers