Interformat reliability of digital psychiatric self-report questionnaires: a systematic review

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Digital Health

Background:

• Internet-based interventions often use digital symptom scales.
• Adapting scales to digital formats may impact psychometric properties.
• Previous studies explored digital vs. pen/paper scale differences, but a systematic review was lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and assess the interformat reliability of self-report symptom scales in digital or online psychotherapy research.

Main Methods:

• A systematic review of three databases (MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO) was conducted.
• Studies investigating reliability between digital and pen/paper versions of psychiatric symptom scales were included.
• Interformat reliability of 40 different symptom scales was assessed across 33 selected publications.

Main Results:

• Most instruments demonstrated strong correlations between digital and pen/paper formats.
• Significant score differences between formats were infrequent and likely due to study/sample effects.
• Interformat reliability varied (r=.35 to r=.99), with most scales showing high reliability.

Conclusions:

• Digital and pen/paper versions of most symptom scales exhibit high interformat reliability.
• This supports the validity of online psychotherapy research and its comparability to traditional methods.
• Methodological limitations, including insufficient statistical power, were noted in several studies.