ArticleHealth and quality of life outcomes2020
Assessing whether ad hoc clinician-generated patient questionnaires provide psychometrically valid information.
Article in Health and quality of life outcomes, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A Systematic Review of Assessment Methods for Seafarers' Mental Health and Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingPooled it
- Exploring the Preferences and Behavioral Trends of e-Patients in Psychosomatics Towards Telemedicine During and Post COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-Sectional Analysis.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Validating Questionnaires for Lower Limb Rehabilitation Systems and Devices: A Scoping Review.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Association of Function, Symptoms, and Social Support Reported in Standardized Outpatient Clinic Questionnaires With Subsequent Hospital Discharge Disposition and 30-Day Readmissions.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe provision of psychometrically valid patient reported outcomes (PROs) improves patient outcomes and reflects their quality of life. Consequently, ad hoc clinician-generated questionnaires of the past are being replaced by more rigorous instruments. This change, while beneficial, risks the loss/orphaning of decades-long information on difficult to capture/chronically ill populations. The goal of this study was to assess to the quality of data retrieved from these legacy questionnaires.
methodsParticipants included 8563 patients who generated a total of 12,626 hospital admissions over the 2004-2014 study period. Items used to screen for issues related to function, mood, symptoms, and social support among patients with chronic disease were identified in our medical center's patient information questionnaire. Cluster and exploratory factor analyses (EFA) followed by multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) analyses were used to select items that defined factors. Scores were derived with summation and MIRT approaches; inter-factor relationships and relationships of factor scores to assigned diagnostic codes were assessed. Rasch analyses assessed the constructs' measurement properties.
resultsLiterature review and clinician interviews yielded four hypothesized constructs: psychological distress/wellbeing, symptom burden, social support, and physical function. Rasch analyses showed that, while all had good measurement properties, only one, function, separated individuals well. In exploratory factor analyses (EFA), 11 factors representing depression, respiratory symptoms, musculoskeletal pain, family support, mobility, activities of daily living, alcohol consumption, weight loss, fatigue, neurological disorders, and fear at home were identified. Based on the agreement between EFA and cluster analyses as well as Cronbach's alpha, six domains were retained for analyses. Correlations were strong between activities of daily living and mobility (.84), and moderate between pain and mobility (.37) and psychological distress (.59) Known-group validity was supported from the relationships between factor scores and the relevant diagnostic code assignments (.12 to .20). CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION: Items from ad hoc clinician-generated patient information questionnaires can be aggregated into valid factors that assess supportive care domains among chronically ill patients. However, the binary response options offered by many screening items limit their information content and consequently, as highlighted by Rasch analyses, their ability to meaningfully discriminate trait levels in these populations.
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