Anchoring Vignettes for Usual Activities
Questions:
Overall in the last 30 days, how much difficulty did [name of person/you] have
with work or household activities?
Response categories:
- None
- Mild
- Moderate
- Severe
- Extreme/Cannot Do
Vignettes:
- [John] is a teacher and never misses work. He teaches the senior students
for 6 hours each day, prepares lessons and corrects exam papers.
- [Andrea] is a nurse who works in a General Hospital. She misses work only
one or two days per year. However she suffers from allergies one day per month
that make her only half as productive as usual.
- [Amanda] suffers from stomach cramps every month. Because of the severe
pain, she is unable to go to work for 1 day or two but has no problems catching
up with her tasks.
- [Matthew] is a clerk in the local government office. He maintains ledgers
with no errors and keeps them up to date. However, he ends up not doing any
work for one day every 2 weeks because of a headache.
- [Marina] is an accountant in the local bank and does not miss work. However,
she has periods of anxiety around one day per week, each lasting three to
four hours. During these periods, she makes minor errors in the accounts and
misses deadlines because she tends to postpone tasks.
- [Doris] is a housewife and does most of the cooking and cleaning around
the house. About once a week she leaves tasks half done. Her cooking is not
as good as before and the house is not as clean as it used to be.
- [Dan] is a mason in a building firm. Three to four times per week, he does
not complete his daily bricklaying tasks. With help and supervision, he is
able to use his skills to finish the walls of the buildings.
- [Tania] has been feeling very low. Her concentration at work has deteriorated
and she has been making mistakes in her daily work. In the last month, she
has not finished her tasks on two occasions and has taken leave for 3 days
because she did not get out of bed all day.
- [Anthony] is an editor for a national newspaper. In the past month he has
come in late nearly every day, and has
been absent for 3 days.
- [Thomas] works as an office clerk. He does not make errors when he is closely
supervised. When he is not supervised, he has trouble concentrating and makes
calculation errors 5 to 10 times every day.
- [Karen] is a teacher and has had to miss work for 2 weeks in the past month.
Even now she feels tired and exhausted when she stands for long periods in
the classroom. Colleagues notice that she is making serious mistakes in correcting
homework and exams.
- [John] suffers from bad headaches. He has had to miss two or three days
of work every week. He has had to postpone important tasks. He may have lose
his job if his work does not improve.
- [Carol] is a housewife who leaves most chores around the house half done.
Even with domestic help, some
important tasks are not done in time, such as getting her son ready for school.
Her husband has had to take over
the cooking.
- [Sandra] lives on her own and has had an upset stomach for the past 2 weeks.
She has not cleaned the house in 2 weeks, has stopped cooking, and needs someone
to do the shopping for her.
- [Jack] is a clerk at the local post office. He sits around all day without
doing any work. He cannot sort letters, manage the counter or interact with
customers. His employers are considering replacing him.