BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The Dynamic Gait Index (DGI) is a standardized clinical assessment that aids in evaluating a subject's ability to modify gait in response to changing demands. The purpose of this study was to use Rasch measurement theory to examine whether the DGI rating scale meets suggested psychometric guidelines, whether the hierarchical order of DGI tasks is consistent with a clinica...

For various reasons, standardized psychometric clinical measures of the severity of acute bronchitis (AB) are needed. They help to communicate more exactly on the degree of symptoms and the syndrome, respectively, and they contribute to objective assessment of clinical courses. In the clinic, it is not only necessary to measure outcomes of treatment regarding the intervention process, it is als...

Self-assessment is an appropriate way to support client-centered practice and promote personal development in young occupational therapy clients. This study, the second study in a series of two, sought to refine the psychometric properties based on previous analysis of the Child Occupational Self-Assessment (COSA), a self-report tool based on the Model of Human Occupation. The COSA comprises 24...

Three studies are presented that demonstrate the psychometric properties and initial validation of the International Personality Item Pool-Interpersonal Circumplex (IPIP-IPC). The IPIP-IPC is a brief 32-item assessment of the interpersonal cirucmplex designed to be used when time is limited or when participants have difficulty understanding the adjective items used in more traditional assessmen...

BACKGROUND The number of children worldwide requiring palliative care services is increasing due to advances in medical care and technology. The use of outcome measures is important to improve the quality and effectiveness of care. AIM To systematically identify health-related quality-of-life outcome measures that could be used in paediatric palliative care and examine their feasibility of us...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the scientific production published between 2001 and 2006 describing studies assessing children in painful situations, with a focus on preschool children. SOURCES Searches were run for empirical articles indexed in electronic databases using the keywords pain assessment and behavior and their equivalents in Portuguese. SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS A total of 33 articles were...

Although there is a worldwide interest in the assessment of health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) in haemophilia patients, no non-disease specific instruments (for adults) are readily available. In this paper, a haemophilia-specific quality-of-life assessment measure for adults (the Hemofilia-QoL questionnaire) has been developed and tested for psychometric properties in 121 adults with haemop...

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is an issue primarily of concern in adolescents and young adults. Thus far, no single NSSI self-report measure offers a fully comprehensive assessment of NSSI, particularly including measurement of both its functions and potential addictive features. The Ottawa Self-Injury Inventory (OSI) permits simultaneous assessment of both these characteristics; the current s...

After moving away from the psychometric and the integrative language testing paradigms toward the communicative language testing paradigm, experts in writing and assessment have been concerned with creating conditions under which learners can experience and display writing in an authentic way so that their writings will tally the ones in non-test situations. As an alternative assessment option,...

BACKGROUND Quality of life (QOL) is a central outcome measure in caring for seriously ill patients. The Missoula-VITAS Quality of Life Index (MVQOLI) is a 25-item patient-centered index that weights each of five QOL dimensions (symptoms, function, interpersonal, wellbeing, transcendence) by its importance to the respondent. The measure has been used to assess QOL for hospice patients, and has b...