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An examination of psychometric properties of study quality assessment scales in meta-analysis: Rasch measurement model applied to the firefighter cancer literature

Most existing quality scales have been developed with minimal attention to accepted standards of psychometric properties. Even for those that have been used widely in medical research, limited evidence exists supporting their psychometric properties. The focus of our current study is to address this...

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Autores principales: Ahn, Soyeon, Pinheiro, Paulo S., McClure, Laura A., Hernandez, Diana R., Caban-Martinez, Alberto J., Lee, David J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10370747/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37494348
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284469
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author Ahn, Soyeon
Pinheiro, Paulo S.
McClure, Laura A.
Hernandez, Diana R.
Caban-Martinez, Alberto J.
Lee, David J.
author_facet Ahn, Soyeon
Pinheiro, Paulo S.
McClure, Laura A.
Hernandez, Diana R.
Caban-Martinez, Alberto J.
Lee, David J.
author_sort Ahn, Soyeon
collection PubMed
description Most existing quality scales have been developed with minimal attention to accepted standards of psychometric properties. Even for those that have been used widely in medical research, limited evidence exists supporting their psychometric properties. The focus of our current study is to address this gap by evaluating the psychometrics properties of two existing quality scales that are frequently used in cancer observational research: (1) Item Bank on Risk of Bias and Precision of Observational Studies developed by the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International and (2) Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (NOQAS). We used the Rasch measurement model to evaluate the psychometric properties of two quality scales based on the ratings of 49 studies that examine firefighters’ cancer incidence and mortality. Our study found that RTI and NOQAS have an acceptable item reliability. Two raters were consistent in their assessment, demonstrating high interrater reliability. We also found that NOQAS has more items that show better fit than the RTI scale. The NOQAS produced lower study quality scores with a smaller variation, suggesting that NOQAS items are much easier to rate. Our findings accord with a previous study, which conclude that the RTI scale was harder to apply and thus produces more heterogenous quality scores than NOQAS. Although both RTI and NOQAS showed high item reliability, NOQAS items are better fit to the underlying construct, showing higher validity of internal structure and stronger psychometric properties. The current study adds to our understanding of the psychometric properties of NOQAS and RTI scales for future meta-analyses of observational studies, particularly in the firefighter cancer literature.
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spelling pubmed-103707472023-07-27 An examination of psychometric properties of study quality assessment scales in meta-analysis: Rasch measurement model applied to the firefighter cancer literature Ahn, Soyeon Pinheiro, Paulo S. McClure, Laura A. Hernandez, Diana R. Caban-Martinez, Alberto J. Lee, David J. PLoS One Research Article Most existing quality scales have been developed with minimal attention to accepted standards of psychometric properties. Even for those that have been used widely in medical research, limited evidence exists supporting their psychometric properties. The focus of our current study is to address this gap by evaluating the psychometrics properties of two existing quality scales that are frequently used in cancer observational research: (1) Item Bank on Risk of Bias and Precision of Observational Studies developed by the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International and (2) Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (NOQAS). We used the Rasch measurement model to evaluate the psychometric properties of two quality scales based on the ratings of 49 studies that examine firefighters’ cancer incidence and mortality. Our study found that RTI and NOQAS have an acceptable item reliability. Two raters were consistent in their assessment, demonstrating high interrater reliability. We also found that NOQAS has more items that show better fit than the RTI scale. The NOQAS produced lower study quality scores with a smaller variation, suggesting that NOQAS items are much easier to rate. Our findings accord with a previous study, which conclude that the RTI scale was harder to apply and thus produces more heterogenous quality scores than NOQAS. Although both RTI and NOQAS showed high item reliability, NOQAS items are better fit to the underlying construct, showing higher validity of internal structure and stronger psychometric properties. The current study adds to our understanding of the psychometric properties of NOQAS and RTI scales for future meta-analyses of observational studies, particularly in the firefighter cancer literature. Public Library of Science 2023-07-26 /pmc/articles/PMC10370747/ /pubmed/37494348 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284469 Text en © 2023 Ahn et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ahn, Soyeon
Pinheiro, Paulo S.
McClure, Laura A.
Hernandez, Diana R.
Caban-Martinez, Alberto J.
Lee, David J.
An examination of psychometric properties of study quality assessment scales in meta-analysis: Rasch measurement model applied to the firefighter cancer literature
title An examination of psychometric properties of study quality assessment scales in meta-analysis: Rasch measurement model applied to the firefighter cancer literature
title_full An examination of psychometric properties of study quality assessment scales in meta-analysis: Rasch measurement model applied to the firefighter cancer literature
title_fullStr An examination of psychometric properties of study quality assessment scales in meta-analysis: Rasch measurement model applied to the firefighter cancer literature
title_full_unstemmed An examination of psychometric properties of study quality assessment scales in meta-analysis: Rasch measurement model applied to the firefighter cancer literature
title_short An examination of psychometric properties of study quality assessment scales in meta-analysis: Rasch measurement model applied to the firefighter cancer literature
title_sort examination of psychometric properties of study quality assessment scales in meta-analysis: rasch measurement model applied to the firefighter cancer literature
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10370747/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37494348
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284469
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