Table 4.
Participants’ Feedback on Acceptability of the PHQ-9
| Participant | Rating 1 | Rating 2 |
|---|---|---|
| PHQ002 | This is a confusing question. What does ‘acceptable’ mean? I don’t mind answering the questions, but then again I wasn’t ticking ‘nearly every day’ for every statement so I might feel it’s more intrusive if that was the case. Q16 is also not very well designed. The scale should have a mid-point and a don’t know option! | |
| PHQ004 | Not enough range between ‘1’ and ‘several days’. Also, more choice between ‘thoughts of being dead or hurting myself’ which might include feeling a range of guilt rather than wanting to die. | |
| PHQ010 | Would like another option for 1 or 2 days. Several days feels like too many but 1 is not true. | For some things I needed a category of 1 or 2. 1 isn’t the case but ‘several days’ feels like too much. |
| PHQ023 | Question 5 and 6 about depression doesn’t allow for context which may affect the data you’re collecting and your results. E.g. I am on medicine for depression but the depression is a result of fatigue. So my answers to questions D) and further questions may not be correlated to ‘usual/classic’ symptoms of depression. Hopefully this is ok for your survey. | |
| PHQ028 | Asking if you are better or dead or hurting yourself is a very grim thought to think about and put yourself in - not very appropriately. | |
| PHQ032 | there is not a choice for occasionally. I think it made me more depressed than I’ve ever been. | It seems to accentuate the negative and filling it in as best as I could makes my me sound more “down” that I actually am! |
| PHQ035 | if you answer no, then you should skip to the next appropriate question | |
| PHQ041 | Two points. 1. No opportunity to refer to other possible current “depression " triggers − 2. Question 16 did not offer a choice between frequency of “1 " and “several days”. Personally 3–12 h would have suited frequencies which I necessarily chose as “several days”. Possibly nitpicking, but the difference between 1 and for a short period I should have thought is more significant than a difference of degree. | |
| PHQ045 | I think there needs to be another option in the choices of “occasionally” in between 1 and several days - I felt that sometimes I wanted to answer between the 2 options | the survey needed a fifth option, between “1” and “several days” - occasionally. there were some questions that I felt I wanted to say I had experienced the situation over the 2 weeks, but several days seemed too frequent. |
| PHQ047 | It was acceptable but as there were only 4 points to the scale I often had to settle for the nearest one when I perhaps would have preferred more options | |
| PHQ060 | Would have liked a ‘one or two days’ option. | Think I said before, but think there should be an option between ‘1’ and ‘Several days’; e.g. ‘One or two days’. |
| PHQ063 | Does not pick up variability in symptoms (e.g. fatigue) & resulting effects on mood, ability to cope, sense of isolation. | Not detailed enough to pick up complex interactions/connections between physical state of health & mood/mental health (e.g. effects of isolation due to physical state on mood). |
| PHQ073 | May be easily attributed to busy schedule rather than MS/depression -- some way of discriminating between the two might be useful. | |
| PHQ076 | there is a huge gap between ‘1’ and ‘several days’. for example, I felt tired for a short time, not even one day though. | I find that I experience the feelings described occasionally, for very short periods of time, so until this 3rd questionnaire I have always answered 1. This is because I do not suffer any of them for whole days, or even parts of days. Rather, only a few minutes at a time. I felt I should register these feelings so have used the first column this time. It would have been more helpful to have possible selections such as ‘ever’, ‘often’, ‘frequently’ etc. |
| PHQ087 | Need more options or space to qualify statement | |
| PHQ098 | 4 years of psychotherapy means no question is odd or bad!! | No questions inappropriate - more that it’s so very general |
| PHQ107 | Range of days in D would be helpful. One day is neither ‘several’ or ‘1’ | |
| PHQ111 | Is there a suggestion that I should feel depressed? | |
| PHQ118 | Every day should also be an option An additional question asking how much the way we are feeling is because of our MS would be 2 | |
| PHQ123 | I feel the categories for the current mood question were too wide. | |
| PHQ124 | I wondered about the ‘better off dead’ aspect. I think it is different from thoughts of ending one’s life, is this difference intentional? I also think it is quite suggestive to people with a new diagnosis, or a recent relapse, for example. Perhaps thoughts that life is not worth living would be a better way to phrase this. I just find it slightly insensitive. | |
| PHQ125 | How certain questions are asked. For example, when asking about my general health does this mean excluding my MS? | |
| PHQ139 | It made me think that should I have these thoughts. |