Citation

Vos L, Whiteneck GG, Ngan E, Leon-Novelo L, Sherer M. Arch. Phys. Med. Rehabil. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

TIRR Memorial Hermann, Brain Injury Research Center; Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.apmr.2019.04.013

PMID

31129144

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The first aim of this study was to develop a Rasch-based crosswalk between two postconcussive symptom measures, the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI) and the Rivermead Postconcussive Symptom Questionnaire (RPQ). The second goal was to utilize Rasch analysis to formulate a new proposed scale containing the best theoretical and psychometric items.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort observational study SETTING: Three acute inpatient rehabilitation hospitals in the United States PARTICIPANTS: 497 community dwelling persons who were previously hospitalized and were diagnosed with mild to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Participants were (a) 18-64 years old, (b) could give informed consent, (c) able to complete study measures in English, and (d) did not have an interfering medical or psychiatric condition. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): NSI, RPQ RESULTS: Rasch analysis revealed four sub-dimensions across the two scales: Cognitive, Affective, Physical, and Visual. Crosswalk tables were generated for the first three. Visual items were too few to generate a crosswalk. Iterative Rasch analysis produced a new scale with items rated from "none" to "severe" including the best items in each of these dimensions.

CONCLUSIONS: The NSI and RPQ have considerable overlap and measure the same overarching constructs. Crosswalk tables may be helpful for clinicians and researchers to convert scores from one measure to the other. A more psychometrically sound scale, the Brain Injury Symptom (BISx) Scale, composed of items from the NSI and RPQ is proposed and will need further validation.

Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Language: en

Keywords

Post-concussion Symptoms; Symptom Assessment; Traumatic Brain Injury