Week 2: Modifying Gieia’s PHQ-9 scoring to validate Gieia’s accurate assessment of teens’ mental wellness

This week I worked on modifying Gieia’s PHQ-9 scoring based on the contrast that I previously noted between the manually-computed scores and the Gieia-produced scores. I began by comparing the manual PHQ-9 scoring guide to Gieia’s algorithm. However, I found that the logic of the scoring guide and Gieia’s algorithm were identical. As a result, I decided to explore a different potential root of this issue.

I recalled that in the PHQ-9’s scoring guide, each selected answer is associated with a specific numerical value. Thus I decided to check whether the numerical value that each answer within Gieia was associated with matched the PHQ-9’s scoring guide. To check this, I modified the code such that every time I selected an answer for each question, I could see what numerical value this answer was associated with and how this answer had altered the cumulative score compiled for Gieia’s PHQ-9 thus far. Based on this, I learned that each answer in Gieia’s PHQ-9 was associated with a numerical value that was one greater than it should have been (as stipulated by the PHQ-9 scoring guide). So I altered the sector of the code assigning the numerical values associated with each answer choice accordingly.

To ensure that Gieia’s PHQ-9 scoring was now accurately representing the scoring guide, I tested a few of the manual PHQ-9 datasets that I had previously created within Gieia’s PHQ-9. However, I found that though some of the Gieia-produced scores and the manually-produced scores matched, some did not.

As a result, I consulted the modulations that I had previously made to the code such that every time I selected an answer for each question, I saw what numerical value this answer was associated with. These modulations also allowed me to view how this selected answer had altered the cumulative score compiled for Gieia’s PHQ-9 thus far. Based on this, I learned that Gieia was not adding the numerical value associated with the answer selected for the PHQ-9’s last question to the cumulative score, thus skewing the Gieia-produced PHQ-9 score and diagnosis. So I adjusted the code to include this final numerical value in the calculated cumulative score. 

After again testing a few of the manual PHQ-9 datasets within Gieia’s PHQ-9 to ensure that Gieia’s scoring was now accurately representing the scoring guide, I was able to confirm that Gieia is able to accurately assess teens’ mental wellness.