Table 2

Comparison of'mood' colour choice in the healthy, anxious and depressed volunteers for each permutation.

Permutation number

Color choice

Volunteer group

p value

Healthy

(n = 41)

No. (%)

respondents

Anxious

(n = 76)

No. (%)

respondents

Depressed

(n = 87)

No. (%)

respondents

positive

24 (59%)

17 (22%)

8 (9%)

Chi-square (4)

1

neutral

10 (24%)

23 (30%)

14 (16%)

= 50.158;

negative

7 (17%)

36 (47%)

65 (75%)

p < 0.001

positive

26 (63%)

20 (26%)

11 (13%)

Chi-square (4)

2

neutral

8 (20%)

13 (17%)

8 (9%)

= 46.633;

negative

7 (17%)

43 (57%)

68 (78%)

p < 0.001

positive

16 (39%)

11 (15%)

4 (5%)

Chi-square (4)

3

neutral

18 (44%)

33 (43%)

20 (23%)

= 46.442;

negative

7 (17%)

32 (42%)

63 (72%)

p < 0.001

positive

18 (44%)

13 (17%)

6 (7%)

Chi-square (4)

4

neutral

16 (39%)

31 (41%)

18 (21%)

= 45.660;

negative

7 (17%)

32 (42%)

63 (72%)

p < 0.001

positive

13 (32%)

6 (8%)

2 (2%)

Chi-square (4)

5 & 6

neutral

21 (51%)

40 (53%)

24 (28%)

= 49.491;

negative

7 (17%)

30 (40%)

61 (70%)

p < 0.001

positive

11 (27%)

2 (3%)

2 (2%)

Chi-square (4)

7 & 8

neutral

26 (63%)

47 (62%)

31 (36%)

= 52.899;

negative

4 (10%)

27 (37%)

54 (62%)

p < 0.001

Comparison of healthy versus anxious and healthy versus depressed was also significant (p < 0.005) for all permutations.

Carruthers et al. BMC Medical Research Methodology 2010 10:12   doi:10.1186/1471-2288-10-12