Completion of the patient questionnaire by the respondent
- The interviewer gives the questionnaire to the respondent and asks him to complete it independently. If the respondent asks for help, the interviewer should encourage him to answer as best as he can, but the interviewer does not help him understand the question. At the same time, the interviewer does not force the respondent to answer every question.
- The interviewer reminds the respondent that his main interest is not for him to answer each question, but his opinion and suggestion regarding the expression of the question (because it is translated from English). The interviewer reminds the respondent that his opinion and suggestion will be used to improve the translation.
- The interviewer notes the time each respondent takes to complete the questionnaire and writes it down in minutes.
Discussion of issues
- General impression: the interviewer asks about the general impression of the respondent from the questionnaire: – is it clear and easy to understand?
- Is it easy to answer the questions, i.e. did he have difficulty choosing the possible answers (“No”, “Yes, to some extent”, “Yes, to some extent”)
- Is it too long?
- Is it suitable for the condition?
- Are the instructions clear?
- Review of the questions one by one: the interviewer goes through the whole questionnaire question by question and checks:
- Was the question difficult to understand and if so, why? Are there words that are difficult to understand or the meaning of the question is unclear?
- How the respondent interprets the question. The interviewer encourages him to explain what he thinks the question means, what he thinks it means and what it refers to in his daily life or experience.
- Would the respondent express this question in another way and how?
- Are the possible answers clear, are they sufficiently different from each other and are they compatible with the question?
The client sends the project for cognitive debriefing stating the following requirements:
- Number of healthy volunteers or patients with a specific disease to be tested on the questionnaire (usually 5, in very rare cases 10)
- Age groups (usually 18 to 80 years old; sometimes children are included who need to be interviewed with their caregivers and/or parents)
- Education (people with both secondary and higher education should be involved)
- Male to female ratio (2: 3 or 3: 2)
The Provider makes an offer for the service by e-mail and upon approval of the Client the Provider contacts its doctor-consultant for the recruitment of patients with the respective disease and/or posts an ad on the Internet. After the Provider recruits the required number of patients according to the Client’s requirements, he fills in the recruitment report stating the number of patients, the type of disease, the date of diagnosis, demographic data such as age, education and occupation and the name of the drugs that patients take currently (if any). Neither the Provider nor the Client collects personal data from patients such as names, address, personal identification number, medical records, etc. During the selection, the participant is informed that the interview would be recorded on audio media.
NN Translations will shortly present Part III of the Cognitive debriefing topic due to the great interest of our clients in this particular service.
Contact us for more information on how we can help you with your translation or cognitive debriefing needs today!