SRP Data Analysis!!!

Dear diary,

 It has been some time since my last entry here. However, as of today, that is about to change. The office has finally received the number of complete surveys required by the Pediatric Maintenance of Certification board to complete one cycle of the implementation process of the teenage depression screen into the office procedures. In my next entry, I will discuss the results given by the MOC website and what strategies the site suggests be the next steps in the continuing implementation of the screen. But for today, I have a different sort of treat.

Below is reprinted each question from the survey, and the average score of all 21 participants on that question. For reference, the following averages are on a scale of 0 to 3, where a score of 0 indicates an answer of "Not at all," and a score of 3 (the highest score) indicates a response of "Nearly every day."

1. Feeling down, depressed, irritable, or hopeless? -- 0.57

2. Little interest or pleasure in doing things? -- 0.33

3. Trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or sleeping too much? -- 0.71

4. Poor appetite, weight loss, or overeating? -- 0.81

5. Feeling tired, or having little energy? -- 0.76

6. Feeling bad about yourself... -- 0.66

7. Trouble concentrating on things... -- 0.71

8. Moving or speaking slowly, or the opposite? -- 0.57

9. Thoughts you were better off dead or of hurting yourself? -- 0.29

The clear standouts here are on the upper end of the range (questions 4 and 5, with scores of 0.81 and 0.76 respectively) and the lower end (questions 2 and 9, 0.33 and 0.29). This begs the question, how good are these questions at predicting the final result of the test? To help answer this question, below are the total depression scores out of 27 for each survey indicating a significant response (a 2 or 3) for each of these questions. Keep in mind that the sample sizes for each of these categories is rather small.

Question 4: average score of 0.81

Average depression score of "2" score participants: 8.5 (mild depression)

Average depression score of "3" score participants: 15 (moderately severe depression)

Average depression score of significant responses on question 4: 12.4 (moderate depression)


Question 5: average score of 0.76

Average depression score of "2" score participants: 13.5 (moderate depression)

Average depression score of "3" score participants: 13 (moderate depression)

Average depression score of significant responses on question 5: 13.33 (moderate depression)


Question 2: average score of 0.33

Average depression score of "2" score participants: 15 (moderately severe depression)

Average depression score of "3" score participants: N/A

Average depression score of significant responses on question 2: 15 (moderately severe depression)


Question 9: average score of 0.27

Average depression score of "2" score participants: 13 (moderate depression)

Average depression score of "3" score participants: N/A

Average depression score of significant responses on question 9: 13 (moderate depression)


Interestingly, we received only one response indicating a score of "2" or "3" for question 9, and three significant responses to question 2. This suggests that the lower average response scores on the 0 to 3 scale to those questions is indicative of the lower presence of these symptoms, or at least an unwillingness to share them, rather than the possibility of these questions being less commonly responded to. Therefore, these questions cannot be considered (given our limited data thus far) important indicators of overall score given that questions 2 and 9 did not receive significantly higher average depression scores of their significant responses. On the other hand, questions 4 and 5, those with the highest average response scores, showed similar levels of depression to questions 2 and 9 when the surveys containing severe scores in each were examined.

What can be said, however, is that a severe response in any of these 4 questions by itself is suggestive of an overall higher depression score. Whereas the overall average depression score was a 5.81 out of 27 (mild depression), the average score indicating a severe response in any category was 10.38 out of 27 (moderate depression), nearly double the score of those surveys not containing any severe responses. Thus, it is safe to say that a severe score for any question generally predicts a higher overall depression score, however, we at this point lack sufficient evidence to give credence to the idea of bellwether questions.

That's it for today!

Stay frosty my friends.