Construction and updating of a public events questionnaire for repeated measures longitudinal studies

Martha Noone,Breige O'Kane,Mary Carton,Maria Semkovska,Declan M Mcloughlin,Ross Dunne,John-Paul Horgan

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00230

Abstract

Impairments of retrospective memory and cases of retrograde amnesia are often seen in clinical settings. A measure of the proportion of memories retained over a specified time can be useful in clinical situations and public events questionnaires may be valuable in this respect. However, consistency of retention of public events memory has rarely been studied in the same participants. In addition, when used in a research context, public events questionnaires require updating to ensure questions are of equivalent age with respect to when the test is taken. This paper describes an approach to constructing and updating a Public Events Questionnaire (PEQ) for use with a sample that is recruited and followed-up over a long time-period. Internal consistency, parallel-form reliability, test-retest reliability, and secondary validity analyses were examined for three versions of the PEQ that were updated every 6 months. Versions 2 and 3 of the questionnaire were reliable across and within versions and for recall and recognition. Change over time was comparable across each version of the PEQ. These results show that PEQs can be regularly updated in a standardized fashion to allow use throughout studies with long recruitment periods.

Highlights

Retrograde amnesia refers to loss of previously learned information from before a fixed point or particular occurrence (Lezak et al, 2004)
This paper reports a method for constructing a Public Events Questionnaire (PEQ) that can be tailored to specific populations and updated every 6 months for use with a sample that is recruited over a long time-period
We present here an approach toward generating a Public Events Questionnaire for use in longitudinal studies to assess consistency of public events memory while allowing for the PEQ to be updated in a standardized fashion

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Retrograde amnesia refers to loss of previously learned information from before a fixed point or particular occurrence (Lezak et al, 2004). Public events questionnaire development findings that point to a difference in retention rate for older and more recent questions (Warrington and Sanders, 1971; Howes and Katz, 1992). This becomes especially important in longitudinal studies, such as clinical trials, where participants may be recruited over several years and it is necessary to ensure that test items are from distant periods of time for all participants and remain balanced in their content. Exploratory analyses were carried out to examine validity of the PEQ

MATERIALS AND METHODS

RESULTS

C Version

DISCUSSION