ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To determine if patients would answer a computer-based interview in the same way as they would answer a personal interview. METHODS: Two hundred consecutive patients in a private practice setting were asked a set of eleven questions relating to their general and gynecologic health. The question set included issues appropriate to a routine, periodic gynecologic history update. Each subject was asked the same question set twice, once by a personal interview and once by a computer. This was done in a crossover fashion. One-half of the subjects were interviewed by a person first; the other half used the computer first. RESULTS: Statistical evaluation demonstrated that patient responses are equivalent. The two methods agreed overall in 96% of the responses. Analysis of the discordant responses showed that in some cases, the computer may be more effective than the personal interview in identifying risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: A computer-based questionnaire can generate responses that are equivalent to the responses to a traditional personal interview. In some cases, a computer may be more successful in eliciting risk factors. Further studies of the application of this technology for patient education and physician efficiency can now be carried out, knowing that subjects respond reproducibly to a computer interview format.
Subject(s)
Attitude to Health , Computers , Interviews as Topic/methods , Medical History Taking/statistics & numerical data , Women's Health , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Female , Gynecology , Health Status , Humans , Middle Aged , Personality Inventory , Reproducibility of Results , Risk Factors , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
Over an 11-month period on a Children's Psychiatric Unit 5% of 60 first admissions for hospitalization were apparently associated with adverse effects of psychotropic medication. Forty (66%) of the first admissions had used, prior to hospitalization, a wide variety of drugs including stimulants, major and minor tranquilizers, anticonvulsants, antidepressants and over-the-counter drugs containing antihistamines and analgesics. It is suggested that inappropriate and injudicious use of psychotropic medications may be associated with unanticipated adverse behavioral effects, which can result in deterioration of a child's functioning to the point of necessitating psychiatric hospitalization. Early identification of these unwanted psychotropic effects has diagnostic, prognostic, economic, and legal implications.
