The AMC Linear Disability Score project in a population requiring residential care: psychometric properties

BACKGROUND: Currently there is a lot of interest in the flexible framework offered by item banks for measuring patient relevant outcomes, including functional status. However, there are few item banks, which have been developed to quantify functional status, as expressed by the ability to perform activities of daily life. METHOD: This paper examines the psychometric properties of the AMC Linear Disability Score (ALDS) project item bank using an item response theory model and full information factor analysis. Data were collected from 555 respondents on a total of 160 items. RESULTS: Following the analysis, 79 items remained in the item bank. The remaining 81 items were excluded because of: difficulties in presentation (1 item); low levels of variation in response pattern (28 items); significant differences in measurement characteristics for males and females or for respondents under or over 85 years old (26 items); or lack of model fit to the data at item level (26 items). CONCLUSIONS: It is conceivable that the item bank will have different measurement characteristics for other patient or demographic populations. However, these results indicate that the ALDS item bank has sound psychometric properties for respondents in residential care settings and could form a stable base for measuring functional status in a range of situations, including the implementation of computerised adaptive testing of functional status

Practical methods for dealing with 'not applicable' item responses in the AMC Linear Disability Score project

Background:\ud Whenever questionnaires are used to collect data on constructs, such as functional status or health related quality of life, it is unlikely that all respondents will respond to all items. This paper examines ways of dealing with responses in a 'not applicable' category to items included in the AMC Linear Disability Score (ALDS) project item bank. \ud \ud Methods:\ud The data examined in this paper come from the responses of 392 respondents to 32 items and form part of the calibration sample for the ALDS item bank. The data are analysed using the one-parameter logistic item response theory model. The four practical strategies for dealing with this type of response are: cold deck imputation; hot deck imputation; treating the missing responses as if these items had never been offered to those individual patients; and using a model which takes account of the 'tendency to respond to items'. \ud \ud Results:\ud The item and respondent population parameter estimates were very similar for the strategies involving hot deck imputation; treating the missing responses as if these items had never been offered to those individual patients; and using a model which takes account of the 'tendency to respond to items'. The estimates obtained using the cold deck imputation method were substantially different. \ud \ud Conclusions:\ud The cold deck imputation method was not considered suitable for use in the ALDS item bank. The other three methods described can be usefully implemented in the ALDS item bank, depending on the purpose of the data analysis to be carried out. These three methods may be useful for other data sets examining similar constructs, when item response theory based methods are used

Performance of cropping systems designed to reduce nitrate leaching into shallow municipal well aquifers

This on-farm experiment tested five different cropping systems with the potential to improve nitrate N management in the capture zones of community water supplies in the upper Midwest. Residual soil nitrate N concentrations were determined for each system in order to estimate the likelihood of nitrate N leaching from the system. An economic analysis also was conducted

Visuospatial perception is not affected by self-related information

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Antonia F. ten Brink was supported by a Rubicon grant (019.173SG.019) from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The funder had no role in study design, analysis, and interpretation of data, writing the report, and the decision to submit the article for publication. CRediT authorship contribution statement Antonia F. Ten Brink: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – review & editing, Supervision. Rebecca de Haan: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft. Daan R. Amelink: Methodology, Investigation, Writing – review & editing. Anniek N. Holweg: Methodology, Investigation, Writing – review & editing. Jie Sui: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing. Janet H. Bultitude: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing – review & editing, Supervision.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Academic Medical Center Linear Disability Score (ALDS) item bank: item response theory analysis in a mixed patient population

BACKGROUND: Currently, there is a lot of interest in the flexible framework offered by item banks for measuring patient relevant outcomes. However, there are few item banks, which have been developed to quantify functional status, as expressed by the ability to perform activities of daily life. This paper examines the measurement properties of the Academic Medical Center linear disability score item bank in a mixed population. METHODS: This paper uses item response theory to analyse data on 115 of 170 items from a total of 1002 respondents. These were: 551 (55%) residents of supported housing, residential care or nursing homes; 235 (23%) patients with chronic pain; 127 (13%) inpatients on a neurology ward following a stroke; and 89 (9%) patients suffering from Parkinson's disease. RESULTS: Of the 170 items, 115 were judged to be clinically relevant. Of these 115 items, 77 were retained in the item bank following the item response theory analysis. Of the 38 items that were excluded from the item bank, 24 had either been presented to fewer than 200 respondents or had fewer than 10% or more than 90% of responses in the category 'can carry out'. A further 11 items had different measurement properties for younger and older or for male and female respondents. Finally, 3 items were excluded because the item response theory model did not fit the data. CONCLUSION: The Academic Medical Center linear disability score item bank has promising measurement characteristics for the mixed patient population described in this paper. Further studies will be needed to examine the measurement properties of the item bank in other populations

Visuospatial perception is not affected by self-related information

Previous research suggests that attention is drawn by self-related information. Three online experiments were conducted to investigate whether self-related stimuli alter visuospatial perceptual judgments. In a matching task, associations were learned between labels ('Yourself'/friend/stranger's name) paired with cues. Cues were coloured outlines (Experiment 1, N = 135), geometric shapes (Experiment 2, N = 102), or coloured gradients (Experiment 3, N = 110). Visuospatial perception bias was measured with a greyscales task. Cues were presented prior to, and/or alongside greyscales. We hypothesized there would be a bias towards the self-related cue. In all experiments, we found a self-related bias in the matching task. Furthermore, there was an overall leftward visuospatial perceptual bias (pseudoneglect). However, we found anecdotal to moderate evidence for the absence of an effect of self-related cues on visuospatial perception judgments. Although self-related stimuli influence how our attention is oriented to stimuli, attention mechanisms that influence perceptual judgements are seemingly not affected by a self-bias

From protection to inclusion : Identifying the Challenges

This report has been developed in the context of the project BRIGHTER FUTURE: Innovative tools for developing full potential after early adversity, whose working team consists of the following entities: Comune di Torino (Italy), CORA (Spain), PAC UK/ Family Action (United Kingdom), Pharos Expertise Center on Health Disparities (Netherlands), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), Università di Verona (Italy), University of Groningen (Netherlands). This report aims to identify and raise awareness about the specific challenges children face in school environments so that those challenges can be appropriately addressed. To that end, the team of the Erasmus+ project "BRIGHTER FUTURE: Innovative tools for developing full potential after early adversity" has contrasted what it is known from research with the experiences of stakeholders: youth who were under state guardianship in their childhood, adoptive and foster families, social workers who work in the child protection system, NGOs that work with families and unaccompanied migrant children, and teachers

Mainstreaming domestic and gender-based violence into sociology and the criminology of violence

Sociological and criminological views of domestic and gender-based violencegenerally either dismiss it as not worthy of consideration, or focus on specificgroups of offenders and victims (male youth gangs, partner violence victims). Inthis paper, we take a holistic approach to violence, extending the definition fromthat commonly in use to encompass domestic violence and sexual violence. Weoperationalize that definition by using data from the latest sweep of the CrimeSurvey for England and Wales. By so doing, we identify that violence is currentlyunder-measured and ubiquitous; that it is gendered, and that other forms of violence (family violence, acquaintance violence against women) are equally ofconcern. We argue that violence studies are an important form of activity forsociologists

De la protección a la inclusión : las personas con experiencias de adopción, acogimiento familiar y residencial en los centros educativos

Este manual ha sido desarrollado en el contexto del proyecto "BRIGTHER FUTURE: Innovative tools for developing full potential after early adversity", financiado por el Programa Erasmus+ de la Comisión Europea y cuyo equipo de trabajo está integrado por las siguientes entidades: Comune di Torino (Italia); CORA (España); PAC UK/ Family Action (Reino Unido); Pharos Expertise Center on Health Disparities (Holanda); Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (España); Università di Verona (Italia); University of Groningen (Holanda).Comprender las diferentes trayectorias de vida y situaciones familiares es clave para maestras, maestros, educadoras y educadores cuando los niñas y niños que viven en acogimiento (incluidos las y los migrantes no acompañadas) y las niñas y niños adoptadas. Este manual proporciona información y herramientas útiles para hacer de la escuela un lugar seguro para todas las niñas y niños, independientemente de su situación familiar

The influence of groups and alcohol consumption on individual risk-taking

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Background: Research addressing the influence of alcohol and groups on risky behaviour has yielded contradictory findings regarding the extent to which intoxicated groups exaggerate or minimise risk-taking. Previous work has examined the effect of intoxication on risk-taking focusing on collective group decision-making, and to date the influence of alcohol consumption and groups on individual risk-taking has yet to be explored experimentally. The current study therefore examined the impact of intoxication and groups on individual risk-taking. Methods In a mixed design, 99 social drinkers (62 female) attended an experimental session individually (N = 48) or in groups of three (N = 51). Individuals completed the study in isolation while groups were tested in the same room. Participants completed two behavioural measures of risk-taking: Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) and Stoplight Task (SLT), both before and following consumption of an alcoholic (0.6 g/kg males, 0.5 g/kg females) or a placebo beverage. Results Those who participated in groups took significantly more risks in both tasks than those in isolation. Alcohol did not increase risk-taking on either risk-taking tasks. However, those who consumed placebo were significantly less risky on the SLT, compared to baseline. No interactions were found between context and beverage on risk-taking. Conclusion The findings do not support a combined effect of alcohol and groups on individual risk-taking. Rather, results indicate that risk-taking behaviour is influenced by peer presence regardless of alcohol consumption. Targeting the influence of groups (above those of alcohol) may hold promise for reducing risk-taking behaviours in drinking environments