Conducting Measurement Invariance Tests with Ordinal Data: A Guide for Social Work Researchers

Objective: The validity of measures across groups is a major concern for social work researchers and practitioners. Many social workers use scales, or sets of questionnaire items, with ordinal response options. However, a review of social work literature indicates the appropriate treatment of ordinal data in measurement invariance tests is rare; only 3 of 57 articles published in 26 social work journals over the past 12 years used proper testing procedures. This article synthesizes information from the literature and provides recommendations for appropriate measurement invariance procedures with ordinal data. Method: We use data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey to demonstrate applications of invariance testing with ordinal data. Using a robust weighted least squares estimator and polychoric correlation matrix, we examine invariance of a 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) across 2 young adult groups defined by health status. We describe 2 competing approaches: a 4-step approach, in which factor loadings and thresholds are tested and constrained separately; and a 3-step approach, in which loadings and thresholds are tested and constrained in tandem. Results: Both approaches lead to the same conclusion that the 2 dimensions of the PSS are noninvariant across health status. In the absence of invariance, mean scores on the PSS factors cannot be validly compared across groups, nor should latent variables be used in the hypothesis testing across the 2 groups. Readers are directed to online resources. Conclusions: Careful examination of social work scales is likely to reveal fit or noninvariance problems across some groups. Use of appropriate methods for invariance testing will reduce misuse of measures in practice and improve the rigor and quality of social work publications

Knowledge Gaps Among School Staff and the Role of High Quality Ecological Assessments in Schools

The purpose of the current study was to examine the practice validity of a new ecological assessment instrument for 3rd through 5th graders in terms of whether it provided school staff with new knowledge about students

Child-Report Data and Assessment of the Social Environment in Schools

This study tested the quality of data collected with the online ESSP for Children from a diverse sample of 1,172 third through fifth graders

A Quasi-Experimental Test of the Elementary School Success Profile Model of Assessment and Prevention

The Elementary School Success Profile Model of Assessment and Prevention (ESSP MAP) is an assessment and intervention strategy designed to improve student academic performance and behavior. The current analysis uses a quasi-experimental design to examine the relationship between a 3-year implementation of the ESSP MAP and aggregate academic outcomes. Students in one 3rd grade cohort (2007-2008) from 4 schools in 1 district received the intervention as they progressed from 3rd to 5th grade. Longitudinal hierarchical linear modeling with cross-classified effects of schools (N = 10) and cohorts (N = 11) was used to compare trajectories of reading proficiency percentages for the targeted group overall and its demographic subgroups with the trajectories of analogous groups of students across schools and time in the district. Findings suggest that the ESSP MAP was associated with greater growth in reading proficiency rates for Black and White students

Cognitive Pretesting and the Developmental Validity of Child Self-Report Instruments: Theory and Applications

In the context of the importance of valid self-report measures to research and evidence-based practice in social work, an argument-based approach to validity is presented and the concept of developmental validity introduced. Cognitive development theories are applied to the self-report process of children and cognitive pretesting is reviewed as a methodology to advance the validity of self-report instruments for children. An application of cognitive pretesting is presented in the development of the Elementary School Success Profile

Too Hard to Find with Too Little Time: What School Social Workers Want in Online Resources for Evidence-Based Practice

School mental health practitioners, including social workers, are mandated through federal, state, and professional entities to provide evidence-based practices to students. Nevertheless, rates of use of evidence-based practices among mental health professionals in schools remain low, even as knowledge about effective practices increases. This study aimed to further knowledge about how to promote and support the use of evidence-based practices among school practitioners using online technology. School social workers attending a summer professional development event took part in focus groups exploring (a) their current perceptions of evidence-based practices, (b) their experiences finding evidence-based practice information online, and (c) their preferences for the formatting and content of online resources. Participants described a willingness to use evidence-based practice, efforts to find information, and difficulties encountered with online sources. Preferences for readily available, searchable, brief, and understandable online information were expressed. Implications for meeting the needs of school social workers with online resources are discussed

On the presence and functional significance of sympathetic premotor neurons with collateralized spinal axons in the rat

KEY POINTS: Spinally-projecting neurons of the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) determine sympathetic outflow to different territories of the body. Previous studies suggest the existence of RVLM neurons with distinct functional classes, such as neurons that target sympathetic nerves bound for functionally-similar tissue types (e.g. muscle vasculature). The existence of RVLM neurons with more general actions had not been critically tested. Using viral tracing, we show that a significant minority of RVLM neurons send axon collaterals to disparate spinal segments (T2 and T10 ). Furthermore, optogenetic activation of sympathetic premotor neurons projecting to lumbar spinal segments also produced activation of sympathetic nerves from rostral spinal segments that innervate functionally diverse tissues (heart and forelimb muscle). These findings suggest the existence of individual RVLM neurons for which the axons branch to drive sympathetic preganglionic neurons of more than one functional class and may be able to produce global changes in sympathetic activity. ABSTRACT: We investigate the extent of spinal axon collateralization of rat rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) sympathetic premotor neurons and its functional consequences. In anatomical tracing experiments, two recombinant herpes viral vectors with retrograde tropism and expressing different fluorophores were injected into the intermediolateral column at upper thoracic and lower thoracic levels. Histological analysis revealed that ∼21% of RVLM bulbospinal neurons were retrogradely labelled by both vectors, indicating substantial axonal collateralization to disparate spinal segments. In functional experiments, another virus with retrograde tropism, a canine adenovirus expressing Cre recombinase, was injected into the left intermediolateral horn around the thoracolumbar junction, whereas a Cre-dependent viral vector encoding Channelrhodopsin2 under LoxP control was injected into the ipsilateral RVLM. In subsequent terminal experiments, blue laser light (473 nm × 20 ms pulses at 10 mW) was used to activate RVLM neurons that had been transduced by both vectors. Stimulus-locked activation, at appropriate latencies, was recorded in the following pairs of sympathetic nerves: forelimb and hindlimb muscle sympathetic fibres, as well as cardiac and either hindlimb muscle or lumbar sympathetic nerves. The latter result demonstrates that axon collaterals of lumbar-projecting RVLM neurons project to, and excite, both functionally similar (forelimb and hindlimb muscle) and functionally dissimilar (lumbar and cardiac) preganglionic neurons. Taken together, these findings show that the axons of a significant proportion of RVLM neurons collateralise widely within the spinal cord, and that they may excite preganglionic neurons of more than one functional class

A systematic review on the effect of sweeteners on glycemic response and clinically relevant outcomes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The major metabolic complications of obesity and type 2 diabetes may be prevented and managed with dietary modification. The use of sweeteners that provide little or no calories may help to achieve this objective.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We did a systematic review and network meta-analysis of the comparative effectiveness of sweetener additives using Bayesian techniques. MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL and CAB Global were searched to January 2011. Randomized trials comparing sweeteners in obese, diabetic, and healthy populations were selected. Outcomes of interest included weight change, energy intake, lipids, glycated hemoglobin, markers of insulin resistance and glycemic response. Evidence-based items potentially indicating risk of bias were assessed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 3,666 citations, we identified 53 eligible randomized controlled trials with 1,126 participants. In diabetic participants, fructose reduced 2-hour blood glucose concentrations by 4.81 mmol/L (95% CI 3.29, 6.34) compared to glucose. Two-hour blood glucose concentration data comparing hypocaloric sweeteners to sucrose or high fructose corn syrup were inconclusive. Based on two ≤10-week trials, we found that non-caloric sweeteners reduced energy intake compared to the sucrose groups by approximately 250-500 kcal/day (95% CI 153, 806). One trial found that participants in the non-caloric sweetener group had a decrease in body mass index compared to an increase in body mass index in the sucrose group (-0.40 vs 0.50 kg/m², and -1.00 vs 1.60 kg/m², respectively). No randomized controlled trials showed that high fructose corn syrup or fructose increased levels of cholesterol relative to other sweeteners.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Considering the public health importance of obesity and its consequences; the clearly relevant role of diet in the pathogenesis and maintenance of obesity; and the billions of dollars spent on non-caloric sweeteners, little high-quality clinical research has been done. Studies are needed to determine the role of hypocaloric sweeteners in a wider population health strategy to prevent, reduce and manage obesity and its consequences.</p

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio