Open AccessReliability and Validity Issues Related to Interactive Tailored Patient Assessments: A Case Study
Author(s) -
Cornelia M. Ruland,
Suzanne Bakken,
Jo Røislien
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
jmir. journal of medical internet research/journal of medical internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.446
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1439-4456
pISSN - 1438-8871
DOI - 10.2196/jmir.9.3.e22
Subject(s) - reliability (semiconductor) , computer science , validity , test (biology) , psychometrics , reliability engineering , psychology , clinical psychology , engineering , paleontology , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics , biology
Recently there has been a proliferation of interactive tailored patient assessment (ITPA) tools. However, evidence of the reliability and validity of these instruments is often missing, which makes their value in research studies questionable. Because several of the common methods to evaluate instrument reliability and validity are not applicable to interactive tailored patient assessments, informatics researchers may benefit from some guidance on which methods of reliability and validity assessment they can appropriately use. This paper describes the main differences between interactive tailored patient assessments and assessment instruments based on psychometric, or classical test, theory; it summarizes the measurement techniques normally used to ascertain the validity and reliability of assessment instruments based on psychometric theory; it discusses which methods are appropriate for interactive tailored patient assessments and which are not; and finally, it illustrates the application of some of the feasible techniques with a case study that describes how the reliability and validity of the tailored symptom assessment instrument called Choice were evaluated.