Abstract
Background: An increasing amount of syndromes and diseases are being associated with altered immune functioning. For example, the pathology of depression and autism has been associated with altered immune status [1,2]. Determining someone's perceived immune functioning can be established via various questionnaires, which are currently used in both research and clinical settings. Many of these questionnaires have multiple items and thus take considerable time to be completed. Besides the fact that for some patient populations completing a long questionnaire can be a burden, elaborate questionnaires have limit use when in relative short time a variety of health issues need to be assessed (e.g., in surveys or clinical practice). Therefore, for many scales and questionnaires shortened versions have been developed. The quickest and easiest assessment would however comprise a visual analog scale or a single item question on which subjects can rate their perceived immune functioning. Aim of this study: To determine whether a 1-item question on perceived immune status is equally effective as administering a multiple item immune function questionnaire. Methods: Students, 18 to 30 years old, were approached at the campus of Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and invited to complete the survey. Participants were asked to complete two 1-item questions, in order to rate their perceived immune status on a scale from 1 (very poor) to 10 (excellent) [3]. They also reported whether they experienced a lowered immune functioning at the moment of participation. As an example of a multi-item questionnaire, the Immune Function Questionnaire (IFQ) was completed [4]. In this questionnaire participants rate 19 representative immune associated symptoms and diseases on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5, yielding an overall IFQ immune score ranging from 0 to 76, with higher scores implicating poorer immune status. Correlational analyses were conducted to compare the 1-item immune rating with the multiple item IFQ score. Summary of the results: N= 709 students (N = 422 women and N= 287 men) of Utrecht University participated in this study. Their mean (SD) age was 21.3 (2.6) years old. The overall IFQ score significantly correlated with the 1-item immune rating (r = -0.415, p = 0.0001). The correlation was also significant when analyzing the data for women and men separately (women: r = -0.416, p = 0.0001; men: r = -0.395, p = 0.0001). Conclusions: The 1-item immune score correlates significantly with the multiple-item IFQ immune score. The magnitude of the correlation is acceptable, both in men and women. The data suggests that a 1-item question may be useful as a first screening for potential alterations in immune functioning, and in situations with time constraints can replace more elaborate multi-item questionnaires. However, more information is required concerning specific immune related complaints, more extensive questionnaires are recommended.
Original language | English |
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Pages | 367-368 |
Number of pages | 2 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Oct 2016 |
Keywords
- adult
- clinical practice
- doctor patient relation
- female
- human
- immune status
- Likert scale
- major clinical study
- male
- Netherlands
- questionnaire
- screening
- student
- symptom
- university
- visual analog scale
- young adult