The Queensland high risk foot form (QHRFF) - is it a reliable and valid clinical research tool for foot disease?

Background: Foot disease complications, such as foot ulcers and infection, contribute to considerable morbidity and mortality. These complications are typically precipitated by " high-risk factors", such as peripheral neuropathy and peripheral arterial disease. High-risk factors are more prevalent in specific " at risk" populations such as diabetes, kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. To the best of the authors' knowledge a tool capturing multiple high-risk factors and foot disease complications in multiple at risk populations has yet to be tested. This study aimed to develop and test the validity and reliability of a Queensland High Risk Foot Form (QHRFF) tool. Methods: The study was conducted in two phases. Phase one developed a QHRFF using an existing diabetes foot disease tool, literature searches, stakeholder groups and expert panel. Phase two tested the QHRFF for validity and reliability. Four clinicians, representing different levels of expertise, were recruited to test validity and reliability. Three cohorts of patients were recruited; one tested criterion measure reliability (n = 32), another tested criterion validity and inter-rater reliability (n = 43), and another tested intra-rater reliability (n = 19). Validity was determined using sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values (PPV). Reliability was determined using Kappa, weighted Kappa and intra-class correlation (ICC) statistics. Results: A QHRFF tool containing 46 items across seven domains was developed. Criterion measure reliability of at least moderate categories of agreement (Kappa > 0.4; ICC > 0.75) was seen in 91% (29 of 32) tested items. Criterion validity of at least moderate categories (PPV > 0.7) was seen in 83% (60 of 72) tested items. Inter- and intra-rater reliability of at least moderate categories (Kappa > 0.4; ICC > 0.75) was seen in 88% (84 of 96) and 87% (20 of 23) tested items respectively. Conclusions: The QHRFF had acceptable validity and reliability across the majority of items; particularly items identifying relevant co-morbidities, high-risk factors and foot disease complications. Recommendations have been made to improve or remove identified weaker items for future QHRFF versions. Overall, the QHRFF possesses suitable practicality, validity and reliability to assess and capture relevant foot disease items across multiple at risk populations

Minho affective sentences (MAS): probing the roles of sex, mood, and empathy in affective ratings of verbal stimuli

Author's personal copyDuring social communication, words and sentences play a critical role in the expression of emotional meaning. The Minho Affective Sentences (MAS) were developed to respond to the lack of a standardized sentences battery with normative affective ratings: 192 neutral, positive, and negative declarative sentences were strictly controlled for psycholinguistic variables such as number of words and letters, and per million word frequency. The sentences were designed to represent examples of each of the five basic emotions (anger, sadness, disgust, fear, happiness) and of neutral situations. These sentences were presented to 536 participants who rated the stimuli using both dimensional and categorical measures of emotions. Sex differences were also explored. Additionally, we probed how personality, empathy and mood from a sub-set of 40 participants modulated the affective ratings. Our results confirmed that the MAS affective norms are valid measures to guide the selection of stimuli for experimental studies of emotion. The combination of dimensional and categorical ratings provided a more fine-grained characterization of the affective properties of sentences. Moreover, affective ratings of positive and negative sentences were not only modulated by participant’s sex, but also by individual differences in empathy and mood state.Together, our results indicate that, in their quest to reveal the neuro-functional underpinnings of verbal emotional processing, researchers should consider not only the influence of sex, but also of inter-individual differences in empathy and mood states, in the response to the emotional meaning of sentences.The authors gratefully acknowledge all the participants who collaborated in the study, and Vera Matos for her help with data acquisition. This work was supported by Grant Numbers IF/00334/2012 and PTDC/MHNPCN/3606/2012, funded by the Portuguese National Science Foundation (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [FCT], Portugal) and FEDER (Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional) through the European programs QREN (Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional) and COMPETE (Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade), awarded to A.P.P. Additionally, it received support from Grant Number EXPL/MHCPCN/0859/2013, awarded to A.P.S. by FCT and cofunded by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio