Health Qual Life Out
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Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a degenerative neurological disease that causes impairments, including spasticity, pain, fatigue, and bladder dysfunction, which negatively impact on quality of life. The Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale (MSIS-29) is a disease-specific health-related quality of life (HRQoL) instrument, developed using the patient's perspective on disease impact. It consists of two subscales assessing the physical (MSIS-29-PHYS) and psychological (MSIS-29-PSYCH) impact of MS. Although previous studies have found support for the psychometric properties of the MSIS-29 using traditional methods of scale evaluation, the scale has not been subjected to a detailed Rasch analysis. Therefore, the objective of this study was to use Rasch analysis to assess the internal validity of the scale, and its response format, item fit, targeting, internal consistency and dimensionality. ⋯ In this first study to use Rasch analysis to fully assess the psychometric properties of the MSIS-29 support was found for the two subscales but not for the use of the total scale. Further use of Rasch analysis on the MSIS-29 in larger and broader samples is recommended to confirm these findings.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2009
Comparative StudyReliability of a 1-week recall period for the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (MOS-SS) in patients with fibromyalgia.
To evaluate the reliability of a one-week versus a four-week recall period of the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (MOS-SS) in patients with fibromyalgia (FM). ⋯ A 1-week recall period is adequately reliable for use of the MOS-SS in studies evaluating sleep disturbance in patients with FM.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2009
Understanding and assessing the impact of treatment in diabetes: the Treatment-Related Impact Measures for Diabetes and Devices (TRIM-Diabetes and TRIM-Diabetes Device).
Diabetes is a debilitating illness requiring lifelong management. Treatments can be varied in terms of mode of administration as well as type of agent. Unfortunately, most patient reported outcome measures currently available to assess the impact of treatment are specific to diabetes type, treatment modality or delivery systems and are designed to be either a HRQoL or treatment satisfaction measure. To address these gaps, the Treatment Related Impact Measure-Diabetes and Device measures were developed. This paper presents the item development and validation of the TRIM Diabetes/Device. ⋯ Validation is an ongoing and iterative process. These findings are the first step in that process and have shown that both the TRIM-Diabetes and the TRIM-Diabetes Device have acceptable psychometric properties. Future research is needed to continue the validation process and examine responsiveness and the validity of the TRIM-Diabetes/Device in a clinical trial population.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2009
Quality of life in South East Asian patients who consult for dyspepsia: validation of the short form Nepean Dyspepsia Index.
Treatment objectives for dyspepsia include improvements in both symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). There is a lack of disease-specific instruments measuring HRQoL in South East Asian dyspeptics. ⋯ This study demonstrates that both English and Malay versions of the SF-NDI are reliable and probably valid instruments for measuring HRQoL in Malaysian patients with dyspepsia.
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Health Qual Life Out · Jan 2009
Internal construct validity of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): a Rasch analysis using data from the Scottish Health Education Population Survey.
The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) was developed to meet demand for instruments to measure mental well-being. It comprises 14 positively phrased Likert-style items and fulfils classic criteria for scale development. We report here the internal construct validity of WEMWBS from the perspective of the Rasch measurement model. ⋯ A short 7 item version of WEMWBS was found to satisfy the strict unidimensionality expectations of the Rasch model, and be largely free of bias. This scale, SWEMWBS, provides a raw score-interval scale transformation for use in parametric procedures. In terms of face validity, SWEMWBS presents a more restricted view of mental well-being than the 14 item WEMWBS, with most items representing aspects of psychological and eudemonic well-being, and few covering hedonic well-being or affect. However, robust measurement properties combined with brevity make SWEMWBS preferable to WEMWBS at present for monitoring mental well-being in populations. Where face validity is an issue there remain arguments for continuing to collect data on the full 14 item WEMWBS.