Table 4 Predetermined categories deducted from Tourangeau’s 4-step model and selected quotations from responders used in the analyses

Comprehension

Comprehensibility of instructions

“It was pretty easy to understand what to do. Not that much text and that which was important was emphasized with bold font and underline.” (r13)

Feasibility

“… It’s probably fine, except that I probably should’ve had it in Nynorsk [one of two official Norwegian written languages).” (r9)

Comprehensibility of items

“What is pain then? A little bit? A lot? None? Because when I jumped down there, then it was painful.” (r3)

Retrieval

Relevance of items

The pain domain

“Pain in the foot, that I don’t have. I walk freely.” (r3)

The walking/standing domain

“That eight, it is so difficult. I use the car anyways here [chuckles]. We don’t walk when going shopping here.” (r15)

The social interaction domain

“… there are things in the garden that I haven’t managed to do because … it hurts when I’m on my knees … because I get that bend in my foot…” (r5)

Incomplete constructs

“Then you have this issue with vibration in the skin against the plates. It is a bit uncomfortable … Electric scooter on cobblestone [laughs].” (r7)

“If I’ve been sitting for a long time, then it’s painful to start. Then it’s so stiff… That’s probably when it’s most painful.” (r9)

“You’re divorced, as I’ve said, so the kids had to stay with their mom in that entire period.” (r4)

Recall

“Yes, it is okay [to think back on the past four weeks]. Because I feel it has been stable lately.” (r17)

Judgement

Instrument

“Today, irrelevant, because I feel that my foot is doing so well. But when I filled it out the last time, then it was probably more relevant … half a year after I broke my foot.” (r4)

Domains

“I couldn’t stand that long. I couldn’t walk that much. I was limping down the hallways. Everybody could see me coming … And that’s why I got the lightest tasks so that I would avoid standing and walking.” (r7)

Items

“… those nerve pains appear, then it just strikes you. But it could also be … that they are mild, the other pain, like an aching-pain sort of … There is sort of a difference between the pains. Those nerve pains are painful. But it doesn’t last that long. Just a few seconds … But it was probably those nerve pains I was thinking of when I crossed off moderate” (r17)

“I don’t think I need to ask about that, really. Because to me it doesn’t mean anything what other might think. Entirely indifferent.” (r15)

Missing constructs

“Yes, sometimes you can feel that the foot is so stiff, you know. That you’re done, just like you have … I was going to say prosthesis, but … Something is not right, but … it was different before I had the fracture.” (r16)

Response process

Absent response

“I think it was just that I forgot there, because I was thinking that sometimes … But when I think more about it now, then I see that there are different situations that I have … Well, yes …” (r5)

Deduction of information to a suitable response

“… you added daily activities, so it’s alright then … if it had been just work, then I would have been hesitant to what to answer, because I haven’t been to work, but that has nothing to do with the foot” (r3)