The Devil Is in the Tail: Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life (MANSA) test percentiles and normalized T-scores.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

In measurement-based care or routine outcome monitoring self-report questionnaires are used to monitor how a patient fares in therapy. Interpretation and utilization of test results are improved and communication facilitated when raw scores are converted to common metrics, such as standard scores (T-scores) and percentile rank scores. Both types of common metrics are described and reviewed and a warning is issued that percentiles may be misinterpreted at the tails of the scale.

Methods

Data from the Manchester Short Assessment (MANSA) was used to investigate various approaches to obtain T-scores. The study analyzed cross-sectional data from two normative samples: a representative sample of the Dutch general population (N = 11,789) and a clinical sample (N = 9987) of

SUBMITTER: de Beurs E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12847227 | biostudies-literature | 2026

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature