search
for
 About Bioline  All Journals  Testimonials  Membership  News


Neurology India
Medknow Publications on behalf of the Neurological Society of India
ISSN: 0028-3886 EISSN: 1998-4022
Vol. 54, Num. 3, 2006, pp. 316-316

Neurology India, Vol. 54, No. 3, July-September, 2006, pp. 316

Letter To Editor

Is the knowledge about stroke among Indians poor?

Clinical Psychology, Neuroscience Centre, AIIMS, New Delhi - 110 029
Correspondence Address:Clinical Psychology, Neuroscience Centre, AIIMS, New Delhi - 110 029, Email: ashimanehra@gmail.com

Date of Acceptance: 04-Aug-2006

Code Number: ni06104

Sir,

The paper authored by Pandian et al stimulated my curiosity.[1] I was especially intrigued by the questionnaire which was used for the study. The questionnaire was adapted and modified from a previous survey conducted among general public in Northwest India but there was no mention of standardization with reliability and validity. Before adapting a questionnaire one needs to translate it and back translate the same to know which questions are sensitive to assessing what the original questionnaire proposed to assess. A copy of the new questionnaire in this regard would have been helpful. Similarly the questionnaire of socio-demographic information is not clear. The educational and social structure in India is very different from the West. Hence any such information can′t be adapted in Toto from the western culture. A large percentage of the population in our country is illiterate. Hence it would be unfair to club the illiterate and up to primary category. It was not very clear in the methodology if the educational status noted was of the patient or of the relatives. What I understand is that the questionnaire was filled up by asking questions from the significant relative. Hence, the education of the patient, in such a case is not important. A self-report measure to be filled out by patients judged capable of subjectively identifying and reporting on specific information would be different from a form intended as a more objective measure, to be filled out by an individual closest to the patient.[2]

The paper suffers a few flaws that the questionnaire was filled up by trained nurses and medical interns conducted a standardized structured interview with open-ended questionnaire. If any research is done with more than one rater there is always a chance of a rater over estimating or under estimating the information given to him/her. Hence an inter-rater reliability is needed along with establishing the validity of the test.

Minor criticism apart, the investigators deserve congratulations and more such studies need to be done to know the sensitive areas where awareness program need to be organized.

References

1.Pandian JD, Kalra G, Jaison A, Deepak SS, Shamsher S, Singh Y, et al . Knowledge of stroke among stroke patients and their relatives in Northwest India. Neurol India 2006;54:152-6.   Back to cited text no. 1    
2.Nelson L, Satz P, Mitrushina M, Van Gorp W, Cicchetti D, Lewis R, et al . Development and validation of the neuropsychology behavior and affect profile. Psychol Assessment 1989;1:266-72.  Back to cited text no. 2    

Copyright 2006 - Neurology India

Home Faq Resources Email Bioline
© Bioline International, 1989 - 2024, Site last up-dated on 01-Sep-2022.
Site created and maintained by the Reference Center on Environmental Information, CRIA, Brazil
System hosted by the Google Cloud Platform, GCP, Brazil