General Information:
*Note: The Dari and Arabic translation of the item was tested. This is an English translation of the original German source item.*
Question Text:
If you have to climb stairs, that is, walk up several flights of stairs:
How often do you feel impaired due to your health when you do this?
[Wenn Sie Treppen steigen müssen, also mehrere Stockwerke zu Fuß hochgehen:
Wie häufig fühlen Sie sich dabei aufgrund Ihrer Gesundheit beeinträchtigt?]
Answer Categories:
never [nie]
rarely [selten]
sometimes [manchmal]
often [oft]
always [immer]
not specified [keine Angabe]
Recommendations:
Question: We recommend that the time period to which respondents should refer is clearly defined in the question text.
Response format: No changes recommended.
General Probing, Specific Probing
Findings for Question:
Are there test persons who think that the question does not apply to them because they rarely have to climb stairs in everyday life?
Three test persons stated that they never felt impaired when climbing stairs because of their health. When asked, two of these test persons explained that they did not have to climb stairs every day because they could often take the elevator (SY03, SY05), but that this was not the decisive factor for their answer, but rather their physical fitness.
The seven test persons who stated that they "rarely" felt impaired when climbing stairs due to their health either explained that they rarely had to climb stairs or were only exhausted from doing so on rare occasions. One test person who climbed stairs regularly explained that she usually had no problems, but that it occasionally happened that she had difficulty breathing when she was in a hurry (IR02). Another test person explained her occasional troubles by the fact that she smokes (IR04).
In summary, it can be stated that test persons who stated that they did not experience any impairments when climbing stairs did not base their answers exclusively on the fact that they did not have to climb stairs in everyday life. All test persons who did not have to climb stairs regularly themselves included their general physical fitness and other health aspects, such as smoking, in their answers.
No differences in the interpretation of the question or the rationale of the answers could be discovered between the different languages or countries of origin.
Other findings
One test person asked whether the question referred to the current situation or was meant in general; in her opinion, this was not clear from the question (DA06). She finally interpreted the question as referring to the current situation. Since she had injured her leg about a month before the interview, climbing stairs was 'always' a problem at the time of the interview, which is why she had chosen this answer. Before the injury, she would have answered 'never'.
Question Topic:
Public health/ Health impairments
Construct:
Impairment when climbing stairs
