Expected a posteriori scoring in PROMIS(®)

BACKGROUND: The Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System(®) (PROMIS(®)) was developed to reliably measure health-related quality of life using the patient’s voice. To achieve these aims, PROMIS utilized Item Response Theory methods in its development, validation and implementation. PROMIS measures are typically scored using a specific method to calculate scores, called Expected A Posteriori estimation. BODY: Expected A Posteriori scoring methods are flexible, produce accurate scores and can be efficiently calculated by statistical software. This work seeks to make Expected A Posteriori scoring methods transparent and accessible to a larger audience through description, graphical demonstration and examples. Further applications and practical considerations of Expected A Posteriori scoring are presented and discussed. All materials used in this paper are made available through the R Markdown reproducibility framework and are intended to be reviewed and reused. Commented statistical code for the calculation of Expected A Posteriori scores is included. CONCLUSION: This work seeks to provide the reader with a summary and visualization of the operation of Expected A Posteriori scoring, as implemented in PROMIS. As PROMIS is increasingly adopted and implemented, this work will provide a basis for making psychometric methods more accessible to the PROMIS user base.