| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
MATSUKURA Tomoharu Kanazawa University Hospital, Instructor, 医学部附属病院, 講師 (50334777)
TASAKI Miyako Tokyo University of Science, Department of Science, Associate professor, 理学部, 助教授 (50256658)
FUKUSHIMA Masanori Kyoto University, Graduate School of Medicine, Professor, 大学院・医学研究科, 教授 (80107820)
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| Research Abstract |
Item response theory is one of the strongest tools in psychometry and it has been used in the test evaluation. In nursing science, quality of life(QOL) evaluation is considered as very important especially in terminal care. Although numerous questionnaires have been developed, their validity is not scientifically assessed in many cases. The study objective is to investigate the applicability of item response theory for evaluating the validity of QOL questionnaires.
During the first year, we searched many examples in which item response theory has been applied in QOL research. We also applied item response theory in many QOL data including stroke study, chronic heart failure study, and field study of residents. Our experiences to apply the item response theory to the QOL data were presented at International Society of Quality of Life Research and Japanese Society of Clinical Pharmacology.
During the second(last) year, we first summarized the examples of applying item response theory in QO
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L research during the recent three years. Among 24 relevant articles, a total 17 studies was summarized in the table. Secondly, we applied the item response theory in the WHOQOL-26 data including 1,013 residents. Consistency in the results was investigated between this approach and conventionally used factor analysis. Furthermore, item response theory was applied to examine the validity of a newly developed WHOQOL-OLD questionnaire, by using a field survey data in Japan. Thirdly, we have considered practical points when the QOL assessment would be involved into a clinical trial, where an ongoing clinical trial of advanced lung cancer was exemplified. Fourthly, we considered an area to apply item response theory from the viewpoints of statistics and psychometry. In summary, we found its usefulness as follows : reducing the number of items, internal consistency, construct validity or dimensionality, appropriateness of the number of categories to answer, and total scoring method.
Since the patients oriented approach has been so important in medical community, the needs to learn quality of life evaluation have been increasing. Therefore, we have conducted the first tutorial seminar of QOL. The material was included in this report. Less
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