For the past ten weeks, you have actively planned the construction of a survey tool which could be piloted in the real world. Subsequently, you conducted an item analysis to identify the best-fit item

PTSD in Women: Questionnaire Design

PTSD in Women: Questionnaire Design

PTSD in women is a psychological condition which develops in women because of shocking or scary experience. This essay purposes to explain the questionnaire design for testing various aspects of this condition in women. These aspects include PTSD screening, evaluating the symptoms, prevalence, the effects, severity, burden, treatment and the possibility of reoccurrence after treatment. A questionnaire can be designed using two types of questions- open-ended questions which allow the respondent to expound on specific points and objective questions which are always closed to enable a respondent to provide a specified response to an issue. The closed questions always contain options for answers to be given. For instance, the answer could be either yes, no, or I am not sure. In designing the questionnaire, I will use both objective questions to search for specific answers and open-ended questions to allow the respondent to expound on unclear points.

The first test item that I will measure is the screening for the condition. In this case, I will ask some questions to try and identify whether the interviewee may be having some symptoms of PTSD. I will ask questions related to personal experiences, like whether the respondent has ever had a traumatizing or scaring experience that made him/her shocked. This will be an objective question which will only require the respondent to say yes or no. After obtaining the answer, I will ask the respondent to explain the event, using an open-ended question.

After evaluating whether the interviewees have encountered some life-threatening events, I will measure the effects of the life-threatening events to the respondents. PTSD has a number of effects on the patients that are worth measuring. Life-threatening events may make the victims afraid, stressed, shocked or restless. Therefore, I will ask the respondents whether they have had frightening dreams, distressing memories, flashbacks of the event, physical or emotional distress, and any fear of reoccurrence. In these questions, I will give the respondents options to say yes or no, and then allow them to expand on their experiences like the types of dreams and how they experience the flashbacks.

Since the most common cause of PTSD is a traumatizing experience, I will test whether the respondents have had some symptoms of PTSD after the traumatizing event occurred using both closed and open-ended questions to analyze the symptoms given by the respondent. Some symptoms of PTSD in women are Hopelessness, feeling detached from others, avoiding certain events, objects or places, challenges recording the traumatic event and emotional distress among others. Therefore, I will use closed questions to ask “Do you or your friend avoid being reminded of the event and feel numb compared to the way you felt before the event happened?” I will then give them various options such as avoiding conversations, feelings or thoughts of the occurrence, avoiding people, places or activities that remind me of it, feeling detached from the society, feeling emotional restrictions and feeling hopeless. If the interviewee says yes for one or some of these symptoms, then I would know that she may be suffering from PTSD. In administering these questions, I will allow the interviewees to provide more insights on their feelings.

Besides knowing the symptoms of PTSD in women, it is critical to identify the severity of these symptoms on the patients. Therefore, using the questionnaire, I will test the severity of PTSD symptoms on the women. In women, the symptoms of PTSD may be worst. For instance, they may be exposed to thoughts of suicide, physically harming of oneself, outbursts of anger, difficulties concentrating, feeling uneasy and feeling guilty all the time. To evaluate these symptoms, I will ask objective questions relating to these feelings and allow the respondents to provide more insights into the nature of their feelings in an open-ended manner.

Another test item I will duel on is the burden of the PTSD symptoms on women. The burdens are the negative experiences that women are exposed to due to PTSD symptoms such as the inability to take care of their children, alcohol abuse, becoming arrested, falling in a compromising situation and inability to fulfill some expectations. Spending on unhelpful over the counter drugs is also a financial burden of PTSD. Therefore, in testing this aspect, I will ask some questions such as, “During the past one year, have you indulged in alcohol abuse, become unable to raise your children, get arrested, caused trouble to your loved ones or spent on over the counter drugs to quell your emotional distress?. I will use open-ended questions which will require more in-depth explanations from the interviewees.

PTSD has several impacts on the patients. These may be classified as mental health problems, physical health problems and problems at work and relationships. With regards to these impacts, I will test whether the patients have been exposed to any or some of the impacts of PTSD. I will ask open-ended questions like, “How efficient have you been able to work since you experienced the shocking event? Has your eating habit changed? How has your weight increased/decreased since the event occurred?” These questions will enable me to identify whether the PTSD symptoms have impacted negatively on the patients emotional or physical health.

Most of the PTSD patients tend to have both physical and mental challenges. Therefore, they may not be able to perform some duties efficiently making social support a key aspect to evaluate. In drafting the questionnaire, I will ask some questions to determine whether the PTSD patients have been receiving some support from their families, friends, and the society in general. These questions will also aim at evaluating whether the patients are satisfied with the social support they receive from the members of the community. The social support received from the community may satisfy the patient or be unsatisfactory. Therefore I will ask a question like, “Are you satisfied with the level of support you receive from your friends, relatives or your community?" I will then put a scale from 1-5 whereby 1 will be not as I expect and 5 will be as I expect. The number selected by the respondent will enable me to make an informed decision on whether the society supports women with PTSD symptoms.

Also, it is important to evaluate whether the women are aware of the treatment options available for PTSD patients. Basically, there are three approaches to treating PTSD- psychological therapy, lifestyle approaches, and medical approaches. To start with, some lifestyle approaches include regular exercises, healthy feeding, eliminating drug abuse, involving in constructive duties, using self-optimism and interacting with helpful and inspiring friends. The medical approaches, on the other hand, encompass receiving some medicinal drugs like those that raise serotonin levels, while psychological therapy involves receiving counseling from a mental health professional like a psychiatrist or a counselor.

While asking the questions on the awareness status of the patients about the treatment options available for PTSD, I will major on issues like, whether the patient has ever visited a professional Counsellor, whether the patient has ever received medicines from a health professional, whether the patient has been doing exercises, interacting with family members or friends about their feelings, trying to stop drug and alcohol abuse, and maintaining a well-balanced diet. I will administer these questions in an open-ended manner to allow the patients to expound more on their knowledge of the treatment options.

Lastly. It is important to know the possibility of reoccurrences of PTSD symptoms in women after receiving PTSD treatments. Research indicates that after receiving various forms of treatments, some PTSD patients may experience these symptoms again. Therefore, I will design the questionnaire in such a way as to incorporate some questions to evaluate the possibility of reoccurrence of PTSD in women. These questions will include, “After visiting the psychiatrist, did you still feel threatened, shocked or traumatized with the event? After visiting the psychiatrist, do you still have thoughts of suicide or physical harm? How has your life changed since you received the medications? How can you grade your friends in helping you to recuperate from the traumatizing situation?” These questions will enable me to make an independent judgment on the possibility of women suffering again from PTSD symptoms even after receiving some treatment measures.

In making the tests above, I will use both open-ended and objective questions. The importance of the objective questions is that they eliminate any instances of being biased as the interviewee has only some options to choose from and that I will be able to receive a specific information that I want as precisely as possible without any ambiguities. On the other hand, I will use open-ended questions to allow the respondents to give more explanations on unclear answers and also to give more insights on their experiences.

In a nutshell, for the research on PTSD in women to be completed, a well-constructed questionnaire must be developed which will be used as a tool for collecting information. This questionnaire should focus on some test items like the screening for PTSD symptoms from women, testing the symptoms, their severity, burden, impact, treatment options and the possibility of reoccurrence of these symptoms in women. Therefore, I will incorporate all these test items when designing my interview questionnaire.