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Working mechanism of a multidimensional computerized adaptive test for fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis

BACKGROUND: This paper demonstrates the mechanism of a multidimensional computerized adaptive test (CAT) to measure fatigue in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A CAT can be used to precisely measure patient-reported outcomes at an individual level as items are consequentially selected based...

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Autores principales: Nikolaus, Stephanie, Bode, Christina, Taal, Erik, Vonkeman, Harald E, Glas, Cees AW, van de Laar, Mart AFJ
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4340497/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25890307
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12955-015-0215-7
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author Nikolaus, Stephanie
Bode, Christina
Taal, Erik
Vonkeman, Harald E
Glas, Cees AW
van de Laar, Mart AFJ
author_facet Nikolaus, Stephanie
Bode, Christina
Taal, Erik
Vonkeman, Harald E
Glas, Cees AW
van de Laar, Mart AFJ
author_sort Nikolaus, Stephanie
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: This paper demonstrates the mechanism of a multidimensional computerized adaptive test (CAT) to measure fatigue in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A CAT can be used to precisely measure patient-reported outcomes at an individual level as items are consequentially selected based on the patient’s previous answers. The item bank of the CAT Fatigue RA has been developed from the patients’ perspective and consists of 196 items pertaining to three fatigue dimensions: severity, impact and variability of fatigue. METHODS: The CAT Fatigue RA was completed by fifteen patients. To test the CAT’s working mechanism, we applied the flowchart-check-method. The adaptive item selection procedure for each patient was checked by the researchers. The estimated fatigue levels and the measurement precision per dimension were illustrated with the selected items, answers and flowcharts. RESULTS: The CAT Fatigue RA selected all items in a logical sequence and those items were selected which provided the most information about the patient’s individual fatigue. Flowcharts further illustrated that the CAT reached a satisfactory measurement precision, with less than 20 items, on the dimensions severity and impact and to somewhat lesser extent also for the dimension variability. Patients’ fatigue scores varied across the three dimensions; sometimes severity scored highest, other times impact or variability. The CAT’s ability to display different fatigue experiences can improve communication in daily clinical practice, guide interventions, and facilitate research into possible predictors of fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the CAT Fatigue RA measures precise and comprehensive. Once it is examined in more detail in a consecutive, elaborate validation study, the CAT will be available for implementation in daily clinical practice and for research purposes. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12955-015-0215-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-43404972015-02-26 Working mechanism of a multidimensional computerized adaptive test for fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis Nikolaus, Stephanie Bode, Christina Taal, Erik Vonkeman, Harald E Glas, Cees AW van de Laar, Mart AFJ Health Qual Life Outcomes Research BACKGROUND: This paper demonstrates the mechanism of a multidimensional computerized adaptive test (CAT) to measure fatigue in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A CAT can be used to precisely measure patient-reported outcomes at an individual level as items are consequentially selected based on the patient’s previous answers. The item bank of the CAT Fatigue RA has been developed from the patients’ perspective and consists of 196 items pertaining to three fatigue dimensions: severity, impact and variability of fatigue. METHODS: The CAT Fatigue RA was completed by fifteen patients. To test the CAT’s working mechanism, we applied the flowchart-check-method. The adaptive item selection procedure for each patient was checked by the researchers. The estimated fatigue levels and the measurement precision per dimension were illustrated with the selected items, answers and flowcharts. RESULTS: The CAT Fatigue RA selected all items in a logical sequence and those items were selected which provided the most information about the patient’s individual fatigue. Flowcharts further illustrated that the CAT reached a satisfactory measurement precision, with less than 20 items, on the dimensions severity and impact and to somewhat lesser extent also for the dimension variability. Patients’ fatigue scores varied across the three dimensions; sometimes severity scored highest, other times impact or variability. The CAT’s ability to display different fatigue experiences can improve communication in daily clinical practice, guide interventions, and facilitate research into possible predictors of fatigue. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the CAT Fatigue RA measures precise and comprehensive. Once it is examined in more detail in a consecutive, elaborate validation study, the CAT will be available for implementation in daily clinical practice and for research purposes. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12955-015-0215-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2015-02-21 /pmc/articles/PMC4340497/ /pubmed/25890307 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12955-015-0215-7 Text en © Nikolaus et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Nikolaus, Stephanie
Bode, Christina
Taal, Erik
Vonkeman, Harald E
Glas, Cees AW
van de Laar, Mart AFJ
Working mechanism of a multidimensional computerized adaptive test for fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis
title Working mechanism of a multidimensional computerized adaptive test for fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis
title_full Working mechanism of a multidimensional computerized adaptive test for fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis
title_fullStr Working mechanism of a multidimensional computerized adaptive test for fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis
title_full_unstemmed Working mechanism of a multidimensional computerized adaptive test for fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis
title_short Working mechanism of a multidimensional computerized adaptive test for fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis
title_sort working mechanism of a multidimensional computerized adaptive test for fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4340497/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25890307
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12955-015-0215-7
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