Maciej Górkiewicz

Two Arguments for Options I-don’t-know Except Options Yes /No in Anonymous Questionnaire Survey on Understanding the Causal Relations
In the experiment we examined the behaviour of the participants at the two seemingly equivalent decision situations. At the fi rst situation the participants, aimed to avoid a decisive answer, can only refuse at all, neither Yes nor No. But at the second situation they can choose an additional option I-don’t-know. It was proved that, even in the anonymous survey, the same participants tried to guess the proper Yes or No answers, signifi cantly more oft en at the fi rst situation than at the second one. Th erefore, the option I-don’t-know creates the better opportunity to obtain unbiased information. Th en, the observed relationship between the proportion of Yes versus No answers and the frequency of the I-don’t-know answers gives an additional insight into reliability of the obtained data.

The Cognitive Approach Towards Psychometric Scales: When Difficult is Easier than Easy

Psychometric scales are used in situations in which a certain feature of the tested person cannot be measured directly, but can be estimated (as a so-called hidden – or implicit – construct or variable) on the basis of the answers to the questions (items) on a scale. The cognitive approach enables us to have a more profound insight into the psychometric measurement process which is in fact a complex process of communication between people involved in the measurement. It does not require abandoning the standard statistical methods, including Rasch procedures based on the IRT psychometric measurement theory (Item Response Theory), but enables statistics to again perform its proper role of a tool used to confirm the validity of the conclusions of the psychological examination.

The functional condition and physical mobility among patients provided with  long-term institutional care

Introduction:The increase of dysfunction in the functional condition  and a decrease in physical mobility lead to independence limitation and  increased demand for health care services.

Aim  of the study:  The aim of the research was to evaluate the association between functional condition  and physical mobility and selected demographic variables of patients provided with  long-term institutional care.

Material and Methods:The study group consisted of persons provided with  long-term institutional care. The following standardized research tools were used in this study: the Cognitive Assessment Scale, the Edmonton Functional Assessment Tool  and  the Barthel Index.

Results:Studies have shown that with increasing dysfunction of the functional condition of mobility decreases patients. The analysis showed no significant correlation of functional condition with age and gender of the respondents.

Conclusions:The results indicate a need systematic assessment of  the functional condition of patients, which determines  adjustment of care to the capabilities and needs of the patients.