Correction to: disjunctive answer options complicate communication – a linguistic analysis of the danish EQ-5D (5 L) version (Health Services and Outcomes Research Methodology, (2023), 23, 4, (377-390), 10.1007/s10742-023-00300-7)

Owing to a regrettable oversight the paper contains an error in the analysis of answer option 1 of item 4 of the EQ-5D (5 L). This answer option “Jeg har ingen smerter eller ubehag” (“I have no pain or discomfort”) is reported to be true if and only if the respondent has either no pain or no discomfort. Instead, the answer should be considered true if and only if the respondent has neither pain nor discomfort. While this does not affect any of the article’s conclusions, we want to correct the error to avoid misunderstandings. To correct the error, the part of the paper’s Sect. 3.1 that follows the sentence “Things are more complicated regarding situations where a respondent’s levels of pain and discomfort come apart.” should be replaced by the following: Whereas any degree of pain may be assumed to entail the same degree of discomfort, there is no entailment in the opposite direction. Nausea or dizziness, for example, may involve extreme discomfort with little or no related pain. Thus, every answer option that reports a non-zero level of discomfort is compatible with every answer option that reports a lower non-zero degree of pain. The truth of “Jeg har ekstreme smerter eller ubehag” is compatible with all other answer options under the fourth item except “Jeg har ingen smerter eller ubehag” (“I have no pain or discomfort”) because the truth of its second disjunct “Jeg har ekstremt ubehag” (“I have extreme discomfort”) is compatible with the truth of the first disjunct in all answer options. Put differently, the truth of the fifth answer option permits the truth of all the remaining non-negated disjunctive answer options because one might suffer extreme discomfort together with strong pains that are not extreme, moderate pains, and little pain,, and a disjunction is true whenever one of its disjuncts is true (Aloni 2016). Analogously, the truth of the fourth answer option permits the truth of the third and second answer options because a respondent may experience strong discomfort in combination with moderate pain or little pain. Similarly, the truth of the item’s third answer option permits the truth of the second option. None of these compatibilities are due to entailments because facts about pain levels do not follow from facts about discomfort. In Sect. 3.2, the passage “These situations are represented by combination 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10.” should be replaced by the following: These situations are represented by combination 2, 3, 5, and 6. Also in Sect. 3.2, the passage “The same kind of problem arises for respondents in the situations represented by rows 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10, in Table 2.” should be replaced by the following: The same kind of problem arises for respondents in the situations represented by rows 2, 3, 5, and 6, in Table 2. Also in Sect. 3.2, the passage following the sentence “In the situation represented by row 4, both answer options 2 and 3 will be true, whereas option 2 will be more informative than option 3.” should be replaced by the following: Option 3, however, would be closer to a true representation of the respondent’s level of discomfort. Furthermore, if a respondent in this situation assumes that it is important for the addressee that reported answers do not underestimate the degree of either discomfort or pain that is highest for the respondent, Relevance might encourage him/her to answer “Stærk smerte eller ubehag” (“Strong pain or discomfort”), although this option is false, and whether available answer options are true. A number of the paper’s tables should also be amended to correct the aforementioned error and similar errors regarding two other items of the EQ-5D (5 L) in the paper’s appendix. In Table 2, answer option 1 is not true for any rows. In Table 3, answer option 1 is not true for any rows. In table 2a in the appendix, answer option 1 is only true for row 21. In table 2b in the appendix, answer option 1 is only true for row 21. In table 3a in the appendix, answer option 1 is only true for row 21. In table 3b in the appendix, answer option 1 is only true for row 21.