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Comparison of Psychometric Approaches to Evaluating the PROMIS Depression Instrument

Edited by Dennis Revicki

The papers in this special collection section of Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes were developed as part of an initiative by the Psychometrics Special Interest Group (SIG) of the International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL). Members of the SIG held several meetings to discuss different approaches to analyzing the measurement properties of PRO  instruments. Three working groups were established to write this set of papers using a common dataset. SIG members were given the opportunity to review the papers and the set was approved by the ISOQOL Board of Directors prior to journal submission. The set of papers provide an overview and example application demonstrating how different psychometric methods can be used to develop and refine patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures.  In the first paper in the collection, Donald Patrick provides an introduction to the three psychometric approaches and the selected data source for the method comparisons – the PROMIS®  Emotional Distress – Depression Item Bank version 1.0. Each of the next three papers is dedicated to the evaluation of the item bank using a specific analytical approach; Nolte et al describes classical test theory, Cleanthous et al,  Rasch measurement theory, and Stover et al. evaluates the item bank using item response theory. The collection culminates with a critique of the three evaluations and areas for consideration by Jakob Bjørner.

All articles in this issue underwent the journal’s full standard peer review process. 

  1. This paper is part of a series comparing different psychometric approaches to evaluate patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures using the same items and dataset. We provide an overview and example application t...

    Authors: Angela M. Stover, Lori D. McLeod, Michelle M. Langer, Wen-Hung Chen and Bryce B. Reeve
    Citation: Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes 2019 3:50
  2. The aim of this study is to illustrate an example application of Rach Measurement Theory (RMT) in the evaluation of patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures. RMT diagnostic methods were applied to evaluate the ...

    Authors: Sophie Cleanthous, Skye Pamela Barbic, Sarah Smith and Antoine Regnault
    Citation: Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes 2019 3:47
  3. Psychometric theory offers a range of tests that can be used as supportive evidence of both validity and reliability of instruments aimed at measuring patient-reported outcomes (PRO). The aim of this paper is ...

    Authors: Sandra Nolte, Cheryl Coon, Stacie Hudgens and Mathilde G. E. Verdam
    Citation: Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes 2019 3:46