Open-ended items scored on a continuum, such as 0-100%, have much lower inter-rater reliability than those scored against a rigid marking schedule.
Generally, worded summary items were rated as more important in both countries than the more specifically worded items (see Atkinson MJ et al 2004[ 16] for a discussion of item content based on a continuum between Generality and Specificity of item content).
Each item reflects a level of fatigue, and all the items can be placed on a continuum, ranging from no fatigue to severe fatigue.
Another perspective applies a polytomous Rasch model to infer that the Likert items are interval level estimates on a continuum, and thus that statements reflect increasing levels of an attitude or trait – e.g., as might be used in grading in educational assessment, and scoring of performances by judges.
Brem et al. (2003) and Rice et al. (2011) adopted two different approaches for identifying participants' religious beliefs and views on evolution, but both studies used a single-answer item measured along a continuum between evolution and religion.
i) Global functioning (co-primary outcome) - was assessed using the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF), a 100-point single item, observer-rated scale that rates functioning on a continuum from health to illness.
The cumulated sum of responses to the 8 items gives an image of the severity of depressive symptoms on a continuum between 0 and 24.
The DOCS items were constructed based on evidence that obsessions and compulsions occur on a continuum of severity and therefore are suitable for both non-clinical and clinical respondents [ 30].
Because the present study sought to operationalize fear on a continuum rather than for diagnostic purposes, the 10 items were summed to form a single score (α = .83).83
Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale [ 38]: is a single-item rating scale for evaluation the overall patient functioning during a specified period on a continuum from psychological or psychiatric sickness to health.
