The growing emphasis on patient-centered care has accelerated the demand for high-quality data from patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures. Traditionally, the development and validation of these measures has been guided by classical test theory. However, item response theory (IRT), an alternate measurement framework, offers promise for addressing practical measurement problems found in health-...

This study compares the psychometric utility of Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) for scale construction with data from higher education student surveys. Using 2008 Your First College Year (YFCY) survey data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, two scales are built and tested—one measuring social involve...

When using functional brain imaging to study neuropsychiatric patients an important challenge is determining whether the imaging task assesses individual differences with equal precision in healthy control and impaired patient groups. Classical test theory (CTT) requires separate reliability studies of patients and controls to determine equivalent measurement precision with additional studies t...

OBJECTIVE Patient reported outcomes (PRO) are considered central outcome measures for both clinical trials and observational studies in rheumatology. More sophisticated statistical models, including item response theory (IRT) and computerized adaptive testing (CAT), will enable critical evaluation and reconstruction of currently utilized PRO instruments to improve measurement precision while re...

The National Institutes of Health Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS; trademarked by the National Institutes of Health) Roadmap initiative (available at www.nihpromis.org) is a cooperative research program designed to develop, evaluate, and standardize item banks to measure patient-reported outcomes across different medical conditions as well as the US population (...

Item response theory (IRT) was used to investigate whether this method could be applied to measure HRD effectiveness. Attention was given to handling missing data, interpretation of IRT-scores, and comparison with a comprehensive model for explaining HRD effectiveness. An acceptable fit was shown. The IRT method provided much information about the performance of HRD programs with respect to com...

In scale construction and evaluation, factor analysis (FA) and item response theory (IRT) are two methods frequently used to determine whether a set of items reliably measures a latent variable. In a review of 41 published studies we examined which methodology – FA or IRT – was used, and what researchers’ motivations were for applying either method. Characteristics of the studies were compared ...

This tutorial was written as an introduction to the basics of item response theory (IRT) modeling and its applications to health outcomes measurement for the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Outcomes Measurement Working Group (COMWG). In no way this tutorial is meant to replace any text on measurement theory, but only serve as a stepping-stone for health care researchers to learn this methodo...

This article introduces a model of ordinal unidimensional measurement known as Mokken scale analysis. Mokken scaling is based on principles of Item Response Theory (IRT) that originated in the Guttman scale. I compare the Mokken model with both Classical Test Theory (reliability or factor analysis) and parametric IRT models (especially with the oneparameter logistic model known as the Rasch mod...

INTRODUCTION Physical function is a key component of patient-reported outcome (PRO) assessment in rheumatology. Modern psychometric methods, such as Item Response Theory (IRT) and Computerized Adaptive Testing, can materially improve measurement precision at the item level. We present the qualitative and quantitative item-evaluation process for developing the Patient Reported Outcomes Measureme...