my %scores = (
    'Strongly Disagree', => 1,
    'Disagree', => 2,
    'Neutral' => 3,
    'Agree' => 4,
    'Strongly Agree' => 5
); 

while ( $row = $sth->fetchrow_arrayref ) {

    $sheet->write_string($i, $_, $scores{ $row->[$_] } || $row->[$_], $default_format) for (0..$#$row);
    $i++;
}