Accuracy of a self-reported Measure in Psychological Assessment when the Instrument is self-administered by the Patient or when Administrated by the Clinician.

Background: Self-reported measures are the questionnaire-based instrument that are routinely used in the clinical scenario to assess psychological health. Technically, the self-reported measure should be administrated by the patients themselves but due to the complexity of tools and illiteracy among patients, clinicians often tend to interview the patients.

Objective: Present article aims to compare the accuracy of a self-reported measure in the assessment of the psychological health of a patient when the instrument is self-administrated by the patient and when administrated by the clinician or researcher.

Methods: We have recruited 43 patients of oral cancer in the study who have a tumor in the buccal mucosa region. The Hindi version of the shame and stigma scale was used to analyse the shame and stigma in patients. The questionnaire was first provided to the patient for the self-administration and after that clinician administrated the questionnaire to the patient by keeping the clinician blinded to the patient self-administrated responses.

Results: There was no significant difference in the global mean score and mean score of various subdomains of shame and stigma scale in the self-administered and clinician-administered mode of interview. However, the clinician-administered mode could provide more accurate measures as it helps the patient towards a better understanding of questions.

Conclusion: It is recommended that the newly developed or translated self-reported measure should be tested for both patient administrated and clinician administrated compatibility. Questionnaires could be administrated by the clinician in the case when the patient is illiterate or in the case when the patient does not understand the language of the instrument.