Usual Activities

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:

1. None
2. Mild
3. Moderate
4. Severe
5. Extreme/Cannot Do

Vignettes:

1. [John] is a teacher and never misses work. He teaches the senior students for 6 hours each day, prepares lessons and corrects exam papers.
   
2. [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.
   
3. [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.
   
4. [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.
   
5. [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.
   
6. [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.
   
7. [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.
   
8. [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.
   
9. [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.
   
10. [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.
    
11. [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.
    
12. [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.
    
13. [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.
    
14. [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.
    
15. [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.