This document contains general guidelines for using the Question answer data type. It does not cover all the information that is stored in the type – see the QuestionAnswer member documentation for more information.

This data type stores a question that a user was asked, and their response to the question. In some cases, answers to specific questions should also be stored in separate HealthVault types. For example, if a user is asked a question about their height, the answer should also be recorded as a height instance.

Question

The question asked is stored in the Question codable value. The question text is stored as text. Additionally, the question can be coded to indicate that it is a specific question. The question-sets vocabulary contains a list of all the vocabularies that contain questions, and you can code any of these vocabularies with the question. If a question or vocabulary doesn’t exist and you think it would be a good question to standardize, please contact the data type team to suggest that we add it.

AnswerChoices

The options that can be chosen for the question are stored in the AnswerChoices collection. The text of the option is stored in text portion of the codable value. The code can be used in two different ways:

If the question is a yes/no question or uses a standard set of answer, it may be coded to a vocabulary that contains those answer.  The answer-choices-set vocabulary has a list of standard vocabularies that can be used for this. For example, if the set of questions are “yes/no” questions, they can be coded using the answer-choices-yes-no vocabulary.

Questions that do not have a standard set of answers are coded differently. The text is stored in the text portion of the codable value. The code part may be absent, or may be coded using a vocabulary that more specifically defines the stored value. For example, an answer that indicated the user had Coronary Heart Disease might be coded using an appropriate condition coding.

If the question requires the user to fill in a blank, the AnswerChoices collection will be null.

Answer

The Answer collection records the answer or answers for the user. For answers that are one of the choices in AnswerChoices, the codable value in the Answer collection should be identical to the choice in the AnswerChoices collection.

Textual answers for fill-in-the-blank questions should be stored in the text portion without any coding.

If the user did not answer a question, the Answer will be null.

Example 1: Choose all the apply

Question:

Do you have any of these neurological conditions (choose all that apply)

AnswerChoices:

• Head injury
• Seizures
• Stroke
• None of the above

each of these is coded with an appropriate vocabulary. The user chose “head injury” and “seizures”.

Answers:

• Head injury
• Seizures

these  are identically coded to the AnswerChoices of the same names.

Example 2: Fill in the blank

Question:

How long has it been since your last physical?

AnswerChoices: null

Answers:

• about 3 years ago

Example 3: Standard answer set

Question:

Do you have fair skin?

AnswerChoices:

• Yes
• No

These are coded to the answer-choices-yes-no vocabulary.

Answer:

• Yes

This is coded to the answer-choices-yes-no vocabulary.