Two Methods for Calculating Symptom Cluster Scores.

The study used baseline data from two intervention projects, so it did not test any treatment or clinical assessment. Symptoms were measured with short self-report items, including single items for some symptoms, so measurement error is possible. The composite and reduced rank regression analyses used different final samples because more mothers were missing functional outcome data than symptom data. The authors chose the 0.89 threshold for calling the composite score sufficient, and no established threshold existed. The sample was low-income mothers from two U.S. sites, so the scoring comparison may not apply to other populations. The weights were specific to mothers' function, so another outcome could produce a different symptom pattern.

The authors report no conflicts. The two parent studies were funded by NIH grants R01 MH065524 and R34 MH086553.

Do not read the pain and depressed mood weights as proof that treating those symptoms improves function. This paper compared symptom-scoring methods in one dataset and did not test any intervention.