Interviewer- vs. Self-administration of PROMIS Measures for Adults with Traumatic Injury

This study examines whether it matters if adults with traumatic injuries complete a health survey (PROMIS) themselves or if an interviewer helps them. Researchers compared the results of adults with spinal cord injuries (SCI) or traumatic brain injuries (TBI) who either self-administered the PROMIS or were interviewed. The study found that the PROMIS measures are generally equivalent whether self-administered or interviewer-administered, but there might be a slight tendency for people to report better emotional support or less depression when interviewed.

• 1
  PROMIS instruments demonstrated measurement equivalence across interviewer- administered and self-administered conditions.
• 2
  Participants in the interview-administered condition exhibited higher Emotional Support scores on average as compared with participants in the self-administered condition.
• 3
  Significant differences also emerged between the interviewer-administered and self-administered conditions for the SCI subsample, with higher scores for Emotional Support and lower scores for Depression.