Validated Health Assessments and Trends on unhide®

A validated assessment is a questionnaire that has been carefully studied to make sure it measures what it is intended to measure. Before researchers or clinicians begin using an assessment, it goes through extensive testing to answer questions like:

• Does it accurately measure the symptom or experience it’s designed to measure?  For example, a questionnaire designed to measure pain should accurately reflect a person’s pain levels.
• Does it produce consistent results when completed under similar circumstances? If the same person takes the assessment again under similar conditions, the results should be reasonably alike.

This validation process helps ensure the information collected is reliable, consistent, and meaningful. 

Because these assessments have been scientifically evaluated, researchers can compare results across studies, and clinicians can use the results with greater confidence to better understand patients’ symptoms, experiences, and health outcomes.

We use validated assessments because they allow us to collect high-quality, scientifically meaningful data while also giving participants useful information about their own health over time.

Using validated surveys means:

• your responses contribute to research using established scientific methods;
• your scores can be tracked over time to help you recognize changes or trends;
• your results can support conversations with your healthcare provider.

Rather than relying on the narratives of your experiences alone, validated assessments provide a standardized way to measure symptoms and quality of life.

Bodily Functions (COMPASS-31). The COMPASS-31 measures symptoms related to the autonomic nervous system, which controls automatic body functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, and sweating. It asks about symptoms across six areas, including dizziness when standing, gastrointestinal symptoms, bladder function, and vision changes.

Daily Activities (WSAS-Y Child and Parent). The WSAS-Y measures how much a child’s current health or symptoms interfere with everyday activities. It asks about functioning at school, during daily tasks, in social and leisure activities, and in relationships with family and friends.

Family Impacts: Caregiver Strain (Modified Caregiver Strain Index). The Modified Caregiver Strain Index (MCSI) measures how caregiving responsibilities affect a caregiver’s daily life and well-being. It asks about areas such as emotional stress, physical demands, finances, work, sleep, and personal relationships.

Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). The Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) measures how fatigue affects everyday life, including work, physical activity, motivation, family responsibilities, and social activities. It is commonly used in research involving chronic illnesses where fatigue is an important symptom.

Flexibility (Beighton Questionnaire). The Beighton Score measures generalized joint hypermobility, or the ability of joints to move beyond their normal range of motion. It evaluates flexibility in the fingers, thumbs, elbows, knees, and spine using a standardized 9-point scoring system.

Functional Capacity (FUNCAP-27). The FUNCAP-27 measures how health conditions affect a person’s ability to carry out everyday activities. It asks how symptoms, energy levels, and physical or mental activity affect functioning at home, school, work, and in social settings.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7). The GAD-7 is one of the most widely used questionnaires for measuring symptoms of anxiety. It asks how often you’ve experienced symptoms such as excessive worry, difficulty relaxing, irritability, or feeling nervous during the past two weeks.

Independence Assessment (Lansky Pediatric Performance Scale). The Lansky Pediatric Performance Scale measures a child’s level of independence and daily functioning. It evaluates activity level, through participation in play and the amount of assistance a child needs with everyday activities.

Pediatric Fatigue Severity (PROMIS Parent Proxy Fatigue). The PROMIS Parent Proxy Fatigue questionnaire measures a child’s experience of fatigue based on a caregiver’s observations. It asks about how often a child feels tired, how severe their fatigue is, and how fatigue affects their daily activities.

SF-36 Health Survey. The SF-36 measures overall health-related quality of life. Rather than focusing on a single symptom, it evaluates eight different areas of health, including physical functioning, pain, energy levels, emotional well-being, social functioning, and general health perceptions. Because it looks at health from multiple perspectives, it is one of the most widely used quality-of-life assessments in medical research.

Each validated assessment has its own scoring system. For example, the GAD-7 produces a score from 0 to 21, with higher scores indicating more frequent anxiety symptoms. Researchers have established score ranges that correspond to minimal, mild, moderate, and severe symptom levels. The SF-36 uses a different approach. Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores generally reflecting better health-related quality of life across several different domains.

Because every assessment measures something different, scores should always be interpreted according to the specific questionnaire. It’s also important to understand that a score is not a diagnosis. Instead, scores help quantify your responses using standardized methods that have been developed through years of research.