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

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

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

Psychometric Properties of Questionnaires on Functional Health Status in Oropharyngeal Dysphagia: A Systematic Literature Review

Introduction. Questionnaires on Functional Health Status (FHS) are part of the assessment of oropharyngeal dysphagia. Objective. To conduct a systematic review of the literature on the psychometric properties of English-language FHS questionnaires in adults with oropharyngeal dysphagia. Methods. A systematic search was performed using the electronic databases Pubmed and Embase. The psychometric properties of the questionnaires were determined based on the COSMIN taxonomy of measurement properties and definitions for health-related patient-reported outcomes and the COSMIN checklist using preset psychometric criteria. Results. Three questionnaires were included: the Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10), the Swallowing Outcome after Laryngectomy (SOAL), and the Self-report Symptom Inventory. The Sydney Swallow Questionnaire (SSQ) proved to be identical to the Modified Self-report Symptom Inventory. All FHS questionnaires obtained poor overall methodological quality scores for most measurement properties. Conclusions. The retrieved FHS questionnaires need psychometric reevaluation; if the overall methodological quality shows satisfactory improvement on most measurement properties, the use of the questionnaires in daily clinic and research can be justified. However, in case of insufficient validity and/or reliability scores, new FHS questionnaires need to be developed using and reporting on preestablished psychometric criteria as recommended in literature

Diagnostic value of the Dutch version of the MCclean Screening instrument for BPD (MSI-BPD)

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) often goes unrecognized, and therefore a short but accurate screening tool is desired. The present study investigated the psychometric properties of the 10-item McLean Screening Instrument for BPD (MSI-BPD) in 159 well-diagnosed female participants. The MSI-BPD showed excellent internal consistency (alpha = .90). When compared to BPD diagnoses based on a structured clinical interview (SCID-II), the MSI-BPD showed substantial congruent validity (receiver operating characteristic area under the curve = 0.96). The cutoff point proposed by the developers of the MSI-BPD (7 or more) showed high specificity (.96) and good sensitivity (.71). The optimal cutoff point in the present study (5 or more) showed somewhat lower specificity (.86), but importantly better sensitivity (.94). Taken together, the Dutch version of the MSI-BPD demonstrated good psychometric properties for a screening tool

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

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 properties of the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire for children

In order to broaden the alexithymia concept, we identified six aspects in a newly developed questionnaire for children which aims to measure emotion awareness: Differentiating Emotions, Verbal Sharing of Emotions, Bodily Awareness, Acting Out Emotions, Analyses of Emotions, and Others? Emotions. First, the six-factor structure of this Emotion Awareness Questionnaire was identified in children (692 children, 9-16 years old), although the scale Acting Out Emotions showed poor psychometric properties. Second, the predictive validity of the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire showed promise with respect to self-reported somatic complaints (in samples from two different countries, the UK and the Netherlands), depression and worry. Only Acting Out Emotions did not contribute to any of the criterion variables whilst Bodily Awareness and Others? Emotions contributed in the unexpected direction. It is proposed that the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire could help to identify which specific elements of emotional (dys)functioning are related to different kinds of psychological problems

Psychometric Properties of the Family Caregiver Delirium Knowledge Questionnaire

A valid, reliable measure of family caregivers’ knowledge about delirium was not located in the literature; such an instrument is essential to assess learning needs and outcomes of education provided. The purpose of the current study was to (a) develop a family Caregiver Delirium Knowledge Questionnaire (CDKQ) based on the Symptom Interpretation Model; and (b) establish validity and reliability of the measure. The 19-item CDKQ was developed and administered to 164 family caregivers for community-dwelling older adults. Descriptive statistics were examined for all variables. Psychometric testing included confirmatory factor analysis, item-to-total correlations, and internal consistency reliability. A three-factor model provided the best fit for the data. The findings support initial validity and reliability of the CDKQ with family caregivers. Although the CDKQ was developed for use with family caregivers, it has potential for use with other caregivers, such as home health aides

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