Psychometric validation of the Dysphagia Symptom Questionnaire in patients with eosinophilic esophagitis treated with budesonide oral suspension

Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes

Table 1 The Dysphagia Symptom Questionnaire (version 4.0) and score for each response option^a

Question	Response options	Score
1. Since you woke up this morning, did you eat solid food?^b	No	−
	Yes	−
2. Since you woke up this morning, has food gone down slowly or been stuck in your throat?	No	0
	Yes	2
3. For the most difficult time you had swallowing food today (during the past 24 hours), did you have to do anything to make the food go down or to get relief?	No, it got better or cleared up on its own	0
	Yes, I had to drink liquid to get relief	1
	Yes, I had to cough and/or gag to get relief	2
	Yes, I had to vomit to get relief	3
	Yes, I had to seek medical attention to get relief	4
4. The following question concerns the amount of pain you have experienced when swallowing food. What was the worst pain you had while swallowing food over the past 24 hours?^c	None, I had no pain	0
	Mild	1
	Moderate	2
	Severe	3
	Very Severe	4

DSQ Dysphagia Symptom Questionnaire
^aThe scoring algorithm was constructed from responses to questions 2 and 3, to ensure that the final DSQ score was driven by the frequency and severity of dysphagia
^bResponses to question 1 were unscored
^cResponses to question 4 were not included as part of the psychometric analysis; question 4 is a standalone item on the DSQ