E-HEalth treatment in Long-term Dialysis (E-HELD): study protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial evaluating personalized Internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy in dialysis patients

Table 2 Cut off points personal profile chart

Domain	Measure	Generic/disease-specific	Scale	Cut off points
Physical problems
Pain	Pain subscale, RAND Short Form-36 Health Status Inventory (RAND SF-36) [47]	Disease-specific	20–60	Green: ≥ 47.1; Orange: 47.0–35.1; Red: ≤ 35.0
Fatigue	Shortened Fatigue Questionnaire (SFQ) [49]	Disease-specific	4–28	Green: ≤ 17,9; Orange: 18.0–23.9; Red: ≥ 24.0
Itch	Itch subscale, Impact of Chronic Skin Disease on Daily Life (ISDL) [50]	Disease-specific	3–16	Green: ≤ 5.7; Orange: 5.8–8.9; Red: ≥ 9.0
Limitation in daily life
Limitations in daily activities	Role limitations due to physical problems subscale, RAND Short Form-36 Health Status Inventory (RAND SF-36) [47]	Disease-specific	26–56	Green: ≥ 33.1; Orange: 33.0–26.1; Red: ≤ 26.0
Limitations in social activities	Social functioning subscale, RAND Short Form-36 Health Status Inventory (RAND SF-36) [47]	Disease-specific	12–57	Green: ≥ 44.1; Orange: 44.0–31.1; Red: ≤ 31.0
Distress
Depressed mood	PHQ-9 [64] items of the Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety and Depression Scale (PHQ-ADS) [45].	Generic	0–27	Green: ≤ 9; Orange: 10–19; Red: ≥ 20
Anxiety	GAD-7 [65] items of the Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety and Depression Scale (PHQ-ADS) [45]	Generic	0–21	Green: ≤ 9; Orange: 10–14; Red: ≥ 15

For the domains physical problems and limitations in daily life, percentile scores from within a similar dialysis population (N=172) are used to formulate cut off points [66]. Scores of the 25% of patients scoring worst on the screening measure are visualized in red and indicate frequent problems. Scores between the top 25 and 50% are visualized in orange and indicate occasional problems. Scores below the top 50 percent are visualized in green and indicates no or rare problems. For distress, existing generic cut off points for severe, moderate, and mild problems are used to determine red, orange, and green scores [64, 65]

ISSN: 1745-6215