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The American Urological Association symptom index: does mode of administration affect its psychometric properties?
M J Barry1, F J Fowler, Y Chang
1Medical Practices Evaluation Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA.
Purpose:
We determine whether self-administration and interviewer administration of the American Urological Association (AUA) symptom index are equivalent.
Materials And Methods:
The AUA symptom index was administered twice to 41 visually impaired or illiterate men. Men who were able were randomized to self-administration first and then interviewer administration (43) or the reverse (40).
Results:
The scores in each group were reliable. However, because we could not reject a differential carryover effect, the nonsignificant test of mode effect in the crossover design may have been invalid. At time 1 there was no significant difference between group mean scores for randomized patients (p = 0.13).
Conclusions:
Although the AUA symptom index should be self-administered when possible, interviewer administration appears to be acceptable.