Assessing safety climate in acute hospital settings: a systematic review of the adequacy of the psychometric properties of survey measurement tools

Background: The perceived importance of safety culture in improving patient safety and its impact on patient outcomes has led to a growing interest in the assessment of safety climate in healthcare organizations; however, the rigour with which safety climate tools were developed and psychometrically tested was shown to be variable. This paper aims to identify and review questionnaire studies designed to measure safety climate in acute hospital settings, in order to assess the adequacy of reported psychometric properties of identified tools. Methods: A systematic review of published empirical literature was undertaken to examine sample characteristics and instrument details including safety climate dimensions, origin and theoretical basis, and extent of psychometric evaluation (content validity, criterion validity, construct validity and internal reliability). Results: Five questionnaire tools, designed for general evaluation of safety climate in acute hospital settings, were included. Detailed inspection revealed ambiguity around concepts of safety culture and climate, safety climate dimensions and the methodological rigour associated with the design of these measures. Standard reporting of the psychometric properties of developed questionnaires was variable, although evidence of an improving trend in the quality of the reported psychometric properties of studies was noted. Evidence of the theoretical underpinnings of climate tools was limited, while a lack of clarity in the relationship between safety culture and patient outcome measures still exists. Conclusions: Evidence of the adequacy of the psychometric development of safety climate questionnaire tools is still limited. Research is necessary to resolve the controversies in the definitions and dimensions of safety culture and climate in healthcare and identify related inconsistencies. More importance should be given to the appropriate validation of safety climate questionnaires before extending their usage in healthcare contexts different from those in which they were originally developed. Mixed methods research to understand why psychometric assessment and measurement reporting practices can be inadequate and lacking in a theoretical basis is also necessary

Systematic review of the psychometric properties of patient-reported outcome measures for foot and ankle in rheumatoid arthritis

Background Foot problems and pain are common in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Patient-reported outcome measures provide a standardized method of capturing patients’ perspectives of their functional status and wellbeing. There are many instruments specific to people with feet affected by rheumatoid arthritis but knowledge of their psychometric validation or methodological quality is lacking Objectives To identify patient-reported outcome measures specific to the foot and ankle and rheumatoid arthritis and investigate their methodological quality and psychometric properties Design Systematic review. Data source : A search was conducted for psychometric or validation studies on patient-reported outcomes in Rheumatoid Arthritis published in different languages, by examining the Pubmed; Scopus, CINAHL; PEDro and Google Scholar databases. Review methods . The systematic review performed was based on the following inclusion criteria: psychometric or clinimetric validation studies on patient-reported outcomes specific to the foot and ankle that included patients with Rheumatoid arthritis. Two authors independently assessed the quality of the studies and extracted datas Results Of the initial 431 studies, fourteen instruments met the inclusion criteria. Significant methodological flaws were detected in most with only SEFAS met the COSMIN quality criteria. Conclusion SEFAS had the best quality and was ranked most appropriate for use with patients living with Rheumatoid Arthriti

Psychometric precision in phenotype definition is a useful step in molecular genetic investigation of psychiatric disorders

Affective disorders are highly heritable, but few genetic risk variants have been consistently replicated in molecular genetic association studies. The common method of defining psychiatric phenotypes in molecular genetic research is either a summation of symptom scores or binary threshold score representing the risk of diagnosis. Psychometric latent variable methods can improve the precision of psychiatric phenotypes, especially when the data structure is not straightforward. Using data from the British 1946 birth cohort, we compared summary scores with psychometric modeling based on the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) scale for affective symptoms in an association analysis of 27 candidate genes (249 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)). The psychometric method utilized a bi-factor model that partitioned the phenotype variances into five orthogonal latent variable factors, in accordance with the multidimensional data structure of the GHQ-28 involving somatic, social, anxiety and depression domains. Results showed that, compared with the summation approach, the affective symptoms defined by the bi-factor psychometric model had a higher number of associated SNPs of larger effect sizes. These results suggest that psychometrically defined mental health phenotypes can reflect the dimensions of complex phenotypes better than summation scores, and therefore offer a useful approach in genetic association investigations

Measuring mental health and wellbeing outcomes for children and adolescents to inform practice and policy:a review of child self-report measures

There is a growing appetite for mental health and wellbeing outcome measures that can inform clinical practice at individual and service levels, including use for local and national benchmarking. Despite a varied literature on child mental health and wellbeing outcome measures that focus on psychometric properties alone, no reviews exist that appraise the availability of psychometric evidence and suitability for use in routine practice in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) including key implementation issues. This paper aimed to present the findings of the first review that evaluates existing broadband measures of mental health and wellbeing outcomes in terms of these criteria. The following steps were implemented in order to select measures suitable for use in routine practice: literature database searches, consultation with stakeholders, application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, secondary searches and filtering. Subsequently, detailed reviews of the retained measures’ psychometric properties and implementation features were carried out. 11 measures were identified as having potential for use in routine practice and meeting most of the key criteria: 1) Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment, 2) Beck Youth Inventories, 3) Behavior Assessment System for Children, 4) Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale, 5) Child Health Questionnaire, 6) Child Symptom Inventories, 7) Health of the National Outcome Scale for Children and Adolescents, 8) Kidscreen, 9) Pediatric Symptom Checklist, 10) Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, 11) Youth Outcome Questionnaire. However, all existing measures identified had limitations as well as strengths. Furthermore, none had sufficient psychometric evidence available to demonstrate that they could reliably measure both severity and change over time in key groups. The review suggests a way of rigorously evaluating the growing number of broadband self-report mental health outcome measures against standards of feasibility and psychometric credibility in relation to use for practice and policy

Culturally Appropriate Assessment of Functional Impairment in Diverse Children: Validation of the ADHD-FX Scale With an At-Risk Community Sample

Objective: In an effort to reduce disparities in ADHD diagnoses and treatment across cultures, the current study sought to establish initial psychometric and cultural properties of the ADHD-FX: a culturally sensitive assessment measure of functional impairment related to ADHD for diverse families. Method: Fifty-four Latino parents (44 mothers and 10 fathers) of school-aged children completed the ADHD-FX, as well as several other measures assessing child behavior and parent acculturation. Results: The ADHD-FX demonstrated adequate reliability (as demonstrated by internal consistency and test–retest reliability), psychometric construct validity (as demonstrated by associations with theoretically related measures), and cultural validity (as demonstrated by or lack of associations with acculturation measures). Conclusion: Initial psychometric and cultural properties suggest that the ADHD-FX is a reliable, valid, and culturally appropriate measure to assess functional impairment related to ADHD (i.e., difficulties with academic achievement, social competence, and familial relationships) in an at-risk, school-aged population

The characteristics of cognitive neuroscience tests in a schizophrenia cognition clinical trial: Psychometric properties and correlations with standard measures.

In comparison to batteries of standard neuropsychological tests, cognitive neuroscience tests may offer a more specific assessment of discrete neurobiological processes that may be aberrant in schizophrenia. However, more information regarding psychometric properties and correlations with standard neuropsychological tests and functional measures is warranted to establish their validity as treatment outcome measures. The N-back and AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT) are two promising cognitive neuroscience tests designed to measure specific components of working memory and contextual processing respectively. In the current study, we report the psychometric properties of multiple outcome measures from these two tests as well as their correlations with standard neuropsychological measures and functional capacity measures. The results suggest that while the AX-CPT and N-back display favorable psychometric properties, they do not exhibit greater sensitivity or specificity with functional measures than standard neurocognitive tests

Identifying High Potential Police Officers and Role Characteristics.

Project commissioned in 2000 by the Metropolitan Police Service to carry out a psychometric assessment validation study as part of a career Pathways Project

The psychophysics of absolute threshold and signal duration: A probabilistic approach

The absolute threshold for a tone depends on its duration; longer tones have lower thresholds. This effect has traditionally been explained in terms of ?temporal integration? involving the summation of energy or perceptual information over time. An alternative probabilistic explanation of the process is formulated in terms of simple equations that predict not only the time=duration dependence but also the shape of the psychometric function at absolute threshold. It also predicts a tight relationship between these two functions. Measurements made using listeners with either normal or impaired hearing show that the probabilistic equations adequately fit observed threshold-duration functions and psychometric functions. The mathematical formulation implies that absolute threshold can be construed as a two-valued function: (a) gain and (b) sensory threshold, and both parameters can be estimated from threshold-duration data. Sensorineural hearing impairment is sometimes associated with a smaller threshold=duration effect and sometimes with steeper psychometric functions. The equations explain why these two effects are expected to be linked. The probabilistic approach has the potential to discriminate between hearing deficits involving gain reduction and those resulting from a raised sensory threshold

Propiedades psicométricas del Cuestionario de Violencia de Pareja, versión corta (DVQ-8): una herramienta de evaluación para entornos educativos

Este artículo proporciona información psicométrica de un instrumento de screening de victimización en parejas jóvenes: Dating Violence Questionnaire de 8 ítems. Un primer estudio desarrolló un análisis factorial exploratorio con matrices de correlación policóricas y rotación oblimin con 990 jóvenes universitarios mexicanos con edad promedio de 19.5, de las que dos tercios fueron mujeres, obteniendo una estructura unifactorial con alta confiabilidad para varones y mujeres. El segundo estudio, con una muestra de 355 participantes, proporcionó información sobre la validez del instrumento, encontrando una relación positiva entre el Dating Violence Questionnaire de 8 ítems y victimización percibida, se obtuvieron una significación alta y el tamaño del efecto grande y una relación negativa entre el instrumento y estado de salud, con un efecto moderado. En conclusión, el DVQ-8 incluye indicadores confiables y válidos para la detección temprana de victimización en contextos educativos.This article provides psychometric information from a screening tool for victimization in young couples: the 8-Item Dating Violence Questionnaire. The first study undertook an exploratory factor analysis with polymorphic correlation matrices and oblimin rotation of 990 Mexican university students with an average age of 19.5, two thirds of whom were women, obtaining a unifactorial structure with high reliability for males and females. The second study, with a sample of 355 participants, provided information on the validity of the instrument, finding a positive relationship between the 8-Item Dating Violence Questionnaire and perceived victimization. High significance and a large effect size and negative relationship were obtained between the instrument and state of health, with a moderate effect. In conclusion, the DVQ-8 includes reliable, valid indicators for the early detection of victimization in educational settings

A Psychometric Properties Evaluation of the Italian Version of the Geriatric Depression Scale

Objective. The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is an evaluation tool to diagnose older adult's depression. This questionnaire was defined by Yesavage and Brink in 1982; it was designed expressly for the older person and defines his/her degree of satisfaction, quality of life, and feelings. The objective of this study is to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Italian translation of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-IT). Methods. The Italian version of the Geriatric Depression Scale was administered to 119 people (79 people with a depression diagnosis and 40 healthy ones). We examined the following psychometric characteristics: internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, concurrent validity, and construct validity (factor structure). Results. Cronbach's Alpha for the GDS-IT administered to the depressed sample was 0.84. Test-retest reliability was 0.91 and the concurrent validity was 0.83. The factorial analysis showed a structure of 5 factors, and the scale cut-off is between 10 and 11. Conclusion. The GDS-IT proved to be a reliable and valid questionnaire for the evaluation of depression in an Italian population. In the present study, the GDS-IT showed good psychometric properties. Health professionals now have an assessment tool for the evaluation of depression symptoms in the Italian population