TY - CONF T1 - Issues in Trait Range Coverage for Patient Reported Outcome Measure CATs - Extending the Ceiling for Above-average Physical Functioning T2 - IACAT 2017 Conference Y1 - 2017 A1 - Richard C. Gershon KW - CAT KW - Issues KW - Patient Reported Outcome AB -

The use of a measure which fails to cover the upper range of functioning may produce results which can lead to serious misinterpretation. Scores produced by such a measure may fail to recognize significant improvement, or may not be able to demonstrate functioning commensurate with an important milestone. Accurate measurement of this range is critical for the assessment of physically active adults, e.g., athletes recovering from injury and active military personnel who wish to return to active service. Alternatively, a PF measure with a low ceiling might fail to differentiate patients in rehabilitation who continue to improve, but for whom their score ceilings due to the measurement used.

The assessment of physical function (PF) has greatly benefited from modern psychometric theory and resulting scales, such as the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) PF instruments. While PROMIS PF has extended the range of function upwards relative to older “legacy” instruments, few PROMIS PF items asses high levels of function. We report here on the development of higher functioning items for the PROMIS PF bank.

An expert panel representing orthopedics, sports/military medicine, and rehabilitation reviewed existing instruments and wrote new items. After internal review, cognitive interviews were conducted with 24 individuals of average and high levels of physical function. The remaining candidate items were administered along with 50 existing PROMIS anchor items to an internet panel screened for low, average, and high levels of physical function (N = 1,600), as well as members of Boston-area gyms (N= 344). The resulting data was subjected to standard psychometric analysis, along with multiple linking methods to place the new items on the existing PF metric. The new items were added to the full PF bank for simulated computerized adaptive testing (CAT).

Item response data was collected on 54 candidate items. Items that exhibited local dependence (LD) or differential item functioning (DIF) related to gender, age, race, education, or PF status. These items were removed from consideration. Of the 50 existing PROMIS PF items, 31 were free of DIF and LD and used as anchors. The parameters for the remaining new candidate items were estimated twice: freelyestimated and linked with coefficients and fixed-anchor calibration. Both methods were comparable and had appropriate fit. The new items were added to the full PF bank for simulated CATs. The resulting CAT was able to extend the ceiling with high precision to a T-score of 68, suggesting accurate measurement for 97% of the general population.

Extending the range of items by which PF is measured will substantially improve measurement quality, applicability, and efficiency. The bank has incorporated these extension items and is available for use in research and clinics for brief CAT administration (see www.healthmeasures.net). Future research projects should focus on recovery trajectories of the measure for individuals with above average function who are recovering from injury.

Session Video

JF - IACAT 2017 Conference PB - Niigata Seiryo University CY - Niigata, Japan UR - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZC02F-dIyYovEjzpeuRdoXDiXMLFRuKb ER -