Interpreting interviews

Some of these measures are part of larger, semistructured interviews administered by the therapist. The most commonly used assessments in this category are a family of instruments developed mainly in the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital system. The first instrument in this family is known as the Addiction Severity Index (ASI McLellan et al., 1985). The ASI assesses for a wide variety of biographical data, so it has the advantage of potentially being used as part of an intake interview. The ASI asks about consequences in a wide variety of life domains, and determines recent and lifetime patterns of drug and alcohol use. The ASI also detects recent and lifetime occurrence of problems in these different life domains (e.g., work). Each domain can be scored for the severity of the problems based upon the responses of the client and the clinical judgment of the interviewer. The ASI can be administered by computer to provide for rapid interpretation of answers. 

In addition to the visual monitoring of subjects during testing, clinical assessment can be accomplished by having the project physician interview each subject concerning symptoms, with a standard questionnaire immediately after exposure. Also, subjects can keep a record, on a standard form, of symptoms experienced during and after exposure. It is well to note here that caution should be exercised in interpreting symptoms, because these are unlikely to be blind studies. 

A family history of mental disorders should be gathered, but the identification of mental disorders in family members becomes less reliable when it moves beyond the person directly interviewed. Family history can be useful in narrowing the differential diagnosis and in interpreting potential comorbidity. For instance, consideration of the potential contribution of depression or hypomania to ADITD can be aided if there is a family history of affective disorder. A family history of certain disorders such as tics may also be helpful in selecting and monitoring medications. 

The report on the effects of CS on healthy people considered ordinarily healthy persons (such as would most likely join in riots) and special groups. No Indication had been found during the visit to Londonderry that rioters had suffered marked after-effects, on the basis of Interviews with area residents and medical authorities. To obtain reliable Information on CS effects, a test was arranged In which 34 human volunteers were exposed to CS for an hour, accumulating a total dose of "90 mg-min/m, " which is Interpreted as 1.5 mg/m for 60 min. Blood samples were taken before and Immediately after the exposure and 24 h later, so that hematologic and biochemical postexposure values could be compared with the normal. 

It is important that clinicians appreciate the need for the judicious use of the laboratory for a particular individual, while being sensitive to economic realities, degree of discomfort, and risk of adverse effects. Clinicians must also be cognizant of the nuances in interpreting laboratory data (i.e., their specificity, sensitivity, and predictive value). Finally, they need to integrate laboratory data with the patient s history, interview, and physical examination to formulate the most accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment plan. 

As the authors recognized, however, their methods are open to numerous criticisms. For example, as they state "Retrospective dietary assessments made at a single interview, even when this is conducted by an experienced dietician, are open to criticism since they rely heavily upon the memory of the subject interviewed, the estimates of quantity made by the dietician, and the subsequent expression of those quantities in mass units. The opportunity for error is clearly increased when the interview is conducted through an interpreter" (28). 

Table III indicates the number of dumps identified for one town in Monroe County before and after contact with local officials and field inspections. The findings illustrate that the methodology does not overestimate the number of dumps and possible dumps identified through photo interpretation. However, the process was able to identify approximately twice the number of dumps initially identified through a call-in campaign and preliminary interviews with the same local officials (10).

Although soft-systems analysis provided an over-arching framework for organising and interpreting data, it was also necessary to follow a methodology to extract and validate information from the interview... 

After the interview, interpret, tidy up, order and rank the needs. You may find it handy to use mind maps for this exercise. You can instead use tables in Word if you find them easier. The team will need a single ranked list of needs in the next set of lessons. 

Notes of interview with John Sweeney by Margaret Fikioris (March 2,1983) on file in the Textile Conservator s Office. John A. H. Sweeney was in the first class of fellows in the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. He wrote Winterthur Illustrated (A Winterthur Book, 1963), the first comprehensive guide to the collection. He was Curator of the museum from 1960 to 1965, Deputy Director from 1966 to 1967, and then Senior Deputy Director for the Collections and Interpretations from 1968 to 1974. He served as Coordinator of Research from 1975 to 1979 and then became Assistant to the Director in 1979 to the present. 

Module 2 General interview To ascertain demographic and other data as a basis for analysis of comprehensibility. To clarify competence in colour and visual acuity necessary for some of the subsequent tests. To collect data on work experience, critical to interpretation of comprehensibility assessments. Relevant demographic and other data for linking to study results and analysis. Colour and visual acuity assessed. Role work experience plays in comprehensibility. 

Indirect methods of assessing adherence include patient interviews, pill counts, refill records, and measurement of health outcomes. In one study, the use of patient interviews identified 80% of nonadherent patients, as verified by pill counts.The interview method is inexpensive and allows the pharmacist to show concern for the patient and provide immediate feedback. A drawback of this method is that it can overestimate adherence, and its accuracy depends on the patient s cognitive abilities and the honesty of their replies, as well as the interviewer s correct interpretation of responses. Pill counts provide an objective measure of the quantity of drug taken over a given time period. However, this method is time consuming and assumes that medication not in the container was consumed. The refill record provides an objective measure of quantities obtained at given intervals, but assumes that the patient obtained the medication only from the recorded source. 

---