BACKGROUND Early identification of individuals at risk of developing persistent pain is important to decrease unnecessary treatment costs and disability. However there is scant comprehensive information readily available to assist clinicians to choose appropriate assessment instruments with sound psychometric and clinical properties. OBJECTIVE A national insurer commissioned the development o...

Study objective: To develop a measure of unplanned pregnancy that is valid, reliable, and appropriate in the context of contemporary demographic trends and social mores and can be used in a variety of situations, including the production of population prevalence estimates. Design: A two stage study design: qualitative (inductive) methods to delineate the construct of pregnancy planning, and qua...

OBJECTIVE Evaluation and validation of the psychometric properties of the eight-item modified Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (mMOS-SS). STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING Secondary analyses of data from three populations: Boston breast cancer study (N=660), Los Angeles breast cancer study (N=864), and Medical Outcomes Study (N=1,717). The psychometric evaluation of the eight-item mMOS-SS ...

Two psychometric tests were taken by trainees in anaesthesia and psychiatry, and by consultant practitioners in these specialties. The Cattell 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire measured primary and secondary aspects of personality. The Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory assessed interests, and compared the results with those of the test's control subjects who worked satisfactorily in one of 1...

Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is a surgical procedure to remove stenotic atherosclerotic plaque from the origin of the carotid artery to reduce the risk of major stroke. Its impact on postoperative cognitive function (POCF) remains controversial; complicated, in part, by a traditional failure to account for practice effects incurred during consecutive psychometric testing. To address this for th...

The efficacy of acetyl-L-carnitine (gamma-trimethyl- beta-acetylbutyrobetaine (Alcar) in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild (early) Alzheimer's disease (AD) was investigated with a meta-analysis of double-blind, placebo-controlled prospective, parallel group comparison studies of at least 3 months duration. The duration of the studies was 3, 6 or 12 months and the daily dose varied betwee...

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that white matter integrity, as measured by diffusion tensor and magnetization transfer MRI is significantly associated with cognitive ability measured in youth and old age. METHODS Forty, nondemented, surviving participants of the Scottish Mental Survey of 1932 underwent brain MRI and a battery of psychometric tests covering major cognitive domains and tests ...

BACKGROUND Existing tools for rapid cognitive assessment in HIV-positive individuals with mild cognitive deficits lack sensitivity or do not meet psychometric requirements for tracking changes in cognitive ability over time. METHODS Seventy-five nondemented HIV-positive patients were evaluated with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), a brief battery of standardized neuropsychological te...

NIMI (National Internet Measurement Infrastructure) is a software system for building network measurement infrastructures. Its design emphasizes (i) large-scale infrastructures composed from diversely-administered hosts, rather than infrastructures controlled by a single entity, and (ii) facilitating diverse types of measurements by diverse parties, some of whom are allowed richer access to cer...