does anyone know what 7 variables of a symptom are?

Valerie Salva, BSN, RN · Feb 8, 2009

A non-experimental, correlational replication study retested a model of 7 variables: social support, symptom severity, comorbidity, education, age, gender, and income; the last variable, income, was tested in the prior study but was excluded in this study because of missing data. The model was tested at baseline and 3 months after hospitalization.

http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0147956304000706

mom and nurse · Feb 8, 2009

I may be wrong..but I always thought there were only six variables of a symptom as designated by the letters P Q R S T U

Palliative/Provoke - what makes it better (and what makes it worse)

Quality - How does the pain feel

Radiate/Region - Does it radiate (from where to where)

Severity - On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the worst pain the patient has ever felt, what is the pain level

Timing - When did it start... When is it better or worse

Understanding - What is the patient's understanding of the pain. Has it happened to them before ....

Then I think there is a question of what is experienced or associated along with the symptom... other problems...

I use these when I am assessing a person's pain ....helps me make a better diagnosis....

I seem to remember there is also something used OLD CART to remember these but I don't recall what the letters stood for ....

mom and nurse · Feb 8, 2009

or another may be:

Onset, Location, Duration, characteristics, aggravating factors, relieving factors, timing, (OLD CART)

And then there is Severity... but that would make it OLD CARTS and too many letters :)

Medic09, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Feb 8, 2009

Mom and Nurse: just add Onset at the beginning of the mnemonic. I was always taught OPQRST.

boggle, ASN, RN · Feb 8, 2009

Not sure about the term "variables" here. Do you think it means the parts of a symptom you should assess for?

I had used PQRST too, but found I always missed parts of the review of the symptom. A coworker taught me the pneumonic WHAATSUP and that works better for me.

W- What and Where is the problem?

H- How would you characterize the problem, achey?, burning? sharp?

A- Amount using a 1-10 scale of severity, or a word like severe or mild.

A- Aggravating and Alleviating factors.

T-Timing when problem began, duration and frequency.

S-Setting, what were you doing or what was going on when the symptom began?

U- Unusual -accompanying signs or symptoms?

P- Persons Perception, what they think the problem is.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your assignment.

AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN · Feb 8, 2009

In Nursing AND NP college we used the OLD CART mnemonic mentioned above. Good Luck!

*bettie* · Feb 8, 2009

thank you for helping me! :heartbeat