When Hindsight Is Not 20/20: Ecological Momentary Assessment of PTSD Symptoms Versus Retrospective Report

Details

• Personal Author:
  Boals A ; Callahan JL ; Gonzalez A ; Kotov R ; Luft BJ ; Mahaffey B ; Ruggero CJ ; Schuler K ; Waszczuk MA
• Description:
  Assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has relied almost exclusively on retrospective memory of symptoms, sometimes over long intervals. This approach creates potential for recall bias and obscures the extent to which symptoms fluctuate. The aim of the present study was to examine the discrepancy between retrospective self-reporting of PTSD symptoms and ecological momentary assessment (EMA), which captures symptoms closer to when they occur. The study also sought to estimate the degree to which PTSD symptoms vary or are stable in the short-term. World Trade Center responders (N = 202) oversampled for current PTSD (19.3% met criteria in past month) were assessed three times a day for 7 consecutive days. Retrospective assessment of past week symptoms at the end of the reporting period were compared with daily EMA reports. There was correspondence between two approaches, but retrospective reports most closely reflected symptom severity on the worst day of the reporting period rather than average severity across the week. Symptoms varied significantly, even within the span of hours. Findings support intervention research efforts focused on exploiting significant, short-term variability of PTSD symptoms, and suggest that traditional assessments most reflect the worst day of symptoms over a given period of recall. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Mental Health Occupational Health Safety September 11 Terrorist Attacks Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
• Keywords:
  Assessments Author Keywords: PTSD Ecological Momentary Assessment Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Psychological Testing Psychology PTSD Recall Bias Retrospective Reports Traumatic Incident Stress World Trade Center WTC

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• ISSN:
  1073-1911
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; New York ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 6 ; Texas
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  238-247
• Volume:
  28
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20062644
• Citation:
  Assessment 2021 Jan; 28(1):238-247
• Contact Point Address:
  Camilo J. Ruggero, Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle #311280, Denton, TX 76203, USA
• Email:
  camilo.ruggero@unt.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2021
• Performing Organization:
  State University New York Stony Brook
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20140701
• Source Full Name:
  Assessment
• End Date:
  20170630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d1400393a35d9d1eb48a49c27f5b2ddaeda6b294bbf08be0ec24ee2f151fe2d0f1bb19ac6b6dddfb2132f367c8680bf27c1380cfa8a33e230084b12502dd5dd8
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/225849/cdc_225849_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 302.54 KB ]