Comparison of visual analogue scale and Likert scale in assessing the PROs for patient with spastic paralysis from the stroke / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objectives To assess if visual analogue scale(VAS) or Likert scale was relatively more suitable when measuring self-reported clinical outcomes for apoplexy spastic-paralysis patients.Methods Nineteen questions were made from the serf-evaluating instrument based on patient reported outcomes for apoplexy spasticparalysis patients developed previously in cross-sectional study.104 patients answered the questions by both continuous and discrete visual analogue scale(VAS),while other 110 patients by both five-point Likert scales and Likert-typo scales.Cronbach'sαfor internal consistency reliability,spearman for correlation,and exploratory factor analysis for construct validity were applied.Results Except for emotional domain,the α coefficients of physical domain,social domain and overall score with continuous and discrete VAS are higher than that with five-point Likert scales and Likert-type scales.Internal consistency reliability was stronger for VAS.lntraclass correlation coefficients were above 0.4 mostly for each item with its domain,and VAS may produce the higher correlation.For VAS,there were three factors in the exploratory factor analysis,which confirmed the domain hypotheses of physical,mental and social functions,but for the Likert scales,the result was undesiable.Conclusion The more accurate for the response options,the better for the performance.When the patient can complete the measurement without the help of others,VAS seems better suited.