Response shifting: a qualitative meta-synthesis on response shift
Kara Schick-Makaroff, Antoinette F. Davey, Véronique Sébille, Mirjam A. G. Sprangers, Richard Sawatzky, the Response Shift –in Sync Working Group · 2026
Read Response shifting: a qualitative meta-synthesis on response shift by Kara Schick-Makaroff, Antoinette F. Davey, Véronique Sébille, Mirjam A. G. Sprangers, Richard Sawatzky, the Response Shift –in Sync Working Group (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13242470.txt.
Description
Kara Schick-Makaroff and co-authors gathered qualitative studies of response shift, the way patients change how they judge their own quality of life. Their meta-synthesis appeared in Quality of Life Research in 2026. Response shift can hide real change when people rate their health before and after illness or treatment. The team searched six databases and screened more than a thousand records to find studies that explored the idea through interviews and similar methods.
Fourteen studies qualified, and every one of them found signs of response shift. Patients recalibrated by comparing themselves with their past health or with sicker others. Some shifted their priorities to cope, and some redefined what quality of life meant after their condition changed. The review also catalogs rival explanations, like faulty recall, that researchers must rule out. It ends by urging dialogue across research traditions on how people remake meaning.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Kara Schick-Makaroff, Antoinette F. Davey, Véronique Sébille, Mirjam A. G. Sprangers, Richard Sawatzky, the Response Shift –in Sync Working Group |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 88 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |