Sample of Qpass Quick-Flow format

In order to minimize the administration time of QPASS, a special format was designed for presenting items in a way that might quickly glean relevant information for clinical use. This item presentation design, which was called the “Quick-Flow format," was based upon consulting literature describing organizational principles in information processing. This format attempts to promote a rapid flow of responses by offering a logical sequence of economically worded items under categorical item headings. The quick-flow format elicits responses to entire item groups through the mental grid of the item parcel's heading. For example, Likert-scale responses to a list of short phrases, "pleasure in things" and "energy," are solicited under the heading "Loss of . . ." on the protocol. The quick-flow format uses circled numbers (0-4) for item responses instead of check-off boxes. Check-off boxes, such as those used on the Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck & Steer, 1993) requires glancing back and forth between the empty box and the number scale at the top of the page. Circled numbers, it was observed, does not require this step.