Mobile Medical Computing Reviews > Assessing clients in their natural environments with electronic diaries: rationale, benefits, limitations, and barriers

Assessing clients in their natural environments with electronic diaries: rationale, benefits, limitations, and barriers

“Is the use of electronic diaries (EDs), for assessing clients in their natural environment, conducive to better management of the cases?” The studies reviewed in this paper show that electronic diaries provide a strategic advantage by capturing near real-time reports of events, which have been shown to be notably more accurate and useful compared with traditional recall-based reporting of the same events. Use of electronic diaries has the potential to improve the quality of clinical assessments by providing a near real-time approach to data capture and to improve understanding and better management of the cases by clinicians. However, the caveat is that EDs are just as good as the questions they ask, and the clients have to take on the responsibility of entering data regularly.

Assessing clients in their natural environments with electronic diaries: rationale, benefits, limitations, and barriers

Piasecki TM, Hufford MR, Solhan M, Trull TJ. Psychol Assess. 2007 Mar;19(1):25-43

Reviewed by: Muzna Mirza

This study focuses on the general approach of electronically reporting clinical assessment data on a near real-time basis – and not on any methodology in particular.

Research design/methodology

This paper reports a review of studies focusing mainly on a number of clinical psychological problems. The number of articles reviewed and assessed for inclusion in this review was not described.

Eligibility criteria

Articles describing studies that compared the ED approach to traditional assessment approaches or examined different aspects of the electronic diary approach were included in the review. The reviewed studies examined a variety of clinical problems and were not focused on any particular clinical domain or technology. Detailed information about the study types and participants was not provided. A variety of comparisons and outcome measures were discussed; the most common being the comparison between ED and traditional recall-based approaches for assessment, in terms of compliance with data recording schedule and the reliability of the records as compared to actual events.

Search methodology

The authors do not describe the methodology used to find the articles reviewed in this study.

Analysis

Qualitative analysis was conducted in this study by briefly describing the methods and results of various articles.

Assessment of methodological quality

Neither the inclusion nor the exclusion criteria for the studies reviewed were explicitly stated. However, the title and introductory section of this report implied some of the eligibility criteria mentioned above. The absence of clear criteria makes it difficult for other researchers to replicate the review, and there are chances that others may come to different conclusions from those implied in this report. The authors refer to the studies as clinical, but it is not clear whether they were only clinical psychological studies or also included clinical medical studies.

Research question

“Is the use of electronic diaries (EDs), for assessing clients in their natural environment, conducive to better management of the cases?”

Intervention

The intervention in the reviewed studies was the ED approach for data reporting by clients. The use of various platforms for EDs is discussed in the review.

Technologies

No particular hardware or software was the focus of this study. The authors reviewed a number of diverse studies comparing the use of the electronic diary methodology with traditional recall-based data reporting. Various platforms for ED were mentioned in the review including pagers, programmable wristwatches, personal digital assistants, interactive voice response systems, World Wide Web, pill bottles that record times and dates of opening, portable transducers for measuring smoking topography and wearable devices to track blood alcohol content via skin.

Outcome

HIGHLIGHTS: Electronic diaries have the potential to improve the quality of clinical assessments by providing a near real-time approach to data capture and improving understanding and better management of the cases by clinicians.

IMPLICATIONS: Traditional methods of assessment include “retrospective questionnaires” that are simple to use but yield largely inaccurate reports because of the limitations of recall, an important factor in this approach. On the other hand, electronic diaries have the potential to improve the quality of the assessment by providing a near real-time approach to data capture and reducing the incidence of retro-filling of the diary. This may reduce biased recording of past observations based on events in the future. Improved assessment may lead to better understanding and management of patient cases by clinicians.

GENERALIZABILITY: The issue of the “limitations of recall” and the benefits of the ED approach seem to be generalizable to a variety of clinical practice domains, as shown by the reviewed studies which focus on a number of clinical problems. However, intentional bias is likely in all diary approaches and is of greater concern in clinical assessment, as compared to basic research, because of personal relationships between clients and clinicians. Therefore, the results of this review are more applicable to clinical research and assessment. However, in situations where diary assessment is likely to influence an action such as a major surgery, direct in-hospital observation, per se or in addition to the ED approach, is advisable.

CONSISTENCY: Most of the studies reviewed in this report described the benefits of the ED approach for yielding rich data. Additionally, the studies caution that the overall benefits may depend on factors like the objectives of the assessment, the diary design and the ability of the clients to use the devices.

Further areas for research

Using EDs may add considerable burden for clients, and may not be useful for certain populations, such as those with visual impairment or other physical limitations. The effect of such factors should be assessed before a generalized recommendation for the use of the ED approach can be made. Additionally, trials which compare the data reported through traditional methods to that by the ED approach should also attempt to carry out direct observation in order to validate both data reporting approaches.

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