Book Review: Rasch Measurement in Health Sciences

Edited by Nikolaus Bezruczko

This compilation of Rasch health-science studies emerged out of presentations at the Third International Outcomes Measurement Conference at the University of Illinois at Chicago, June 2000. The book has the feel of sitting in Ben Wright's class held at University of Chicago. I, like Alan Heinemann (see Forward), had the pleasure of auditing Ben's class where graduate students and visiting researchers learned about the Rasch model by applying it to their own data. The dedication to Ben puts together many of the experiences he shared with us in class, presenting his amazing life and scientific journey. The chapters in this book, like the class, reflect the breath of studies and investigations in which the Rasch model can be applied in the health sciences.

Part I places the Rasch model in the context of measurement theory, highlighting the limitations of conventional psychometric approaches. Part II presents an overview of outcomes measurement in rehabilitation, presenting the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation, analysis of an instrument designed to measure a single dimension across impairment, activity and participation for brain injury, patient satisfaction showing that positively and negatively worded questions form different dimensions, methods to reduce differential item functioning across different languages for a quality of life measure, credentialing of health care professionals including computer adaptive testing, and the evaluation medical competence through standard patient-based testing. Part III addresses diagnosis and evaluation in healthcare, presenting the development of a shortened radiographic scale which maintains sensitivity to change, the relationship of blood chemistry to gout diagnosis, consistency of rater effects in inflammatory vascular disease in children, treatment effectiveness in post traumatic stress disorder, the monitoring functional status in patients with multiple sclerosis and measurement of air pollution exposure. Part IV presents special measurement topics including equating quality of life instrument for osteoporosis, anchoring measures to detect clinical change, comparing measures of depression, examining the dimensions of activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living, the measurement qualities of two quality of healthcare surveys and the development of a shortened quality of life survey that is statistically invariant across six cultures. Finally, commentary is presented, highlighting the contribution of the chapters in advancing measurement in healthcare noting the future challenges that must be addressed in order to advance fundamental measurement. While there is wide variability in the rigor of the studies presented, this limitation is offset by exposure to the almost infinite applications of the Rasch model in health care.

Craig A. Velozo, PhD, OTR/L
Research Health Scientist - Veterans Affairs Med. Ctr.
Dept. of Occupational Therapy, University of Florida

Rasch Measurement in Health Sciences

Edited by Nikolaus Bezruczko

www.jampress.org
JAM library recommendation form

Measurement Theory Foundations, Nikolaus Bezruczko and Michael Linacre;

Rasch Model Essentials, Nikolaus Bezruczko;

Quality and Outcome Measures for Medical Rehabilitation, Carl V. Granger, Margaret Kelly Hayes, Mark Johnston, Anne Deutsch, Susan Braun, and Roger C. Fiedler;

Refining a Measure of Brain Injury Sequelae: The Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory, James F. Malec, Anne M. Moessner, Miriam Kragness, and Muriel D. Lezak;

Measuring Patient Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction, Elizabeth A. Hahn and David Cella;

Measurement Consistency for Different Language Versions of Health-Related Quality-of-Life Instruments, Chih-Hung Chang, David Cella, and Benjamin D. Wright;

Credentialing Health Care Professionals, Anne Wendt and Donna Surges Tatum;

Task Specificity and Case Dependency of Standardized Patient-Based Performance Assessments, Linjun Shen;

Assessing Radiographic Status of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Introduction of a Shortened Erosion Scale, Frederick Wolfe, Desiree DM van der Heijde, and Arvi Larsen;

Using Rasch Measurement with Medical Data, Kyle Perkins, Benjamin D. Wright, and J. Kevin Dorsey;

Rater Effects in Evaluation of Rheumatologic Disease Severity, Rita Bode, Marisa Klein-Gitelman, Toula Lechman, Eduardo Mendez, and Lauren M. Pachman;

Representing Treatment Effects with Variable Maps, Everett Smith;

The LIFEware System: Evaluating Functional Status of Multiple Sclerosis Patients, Carl V. Granger and Marsha Carlin;

Several Non-Categorical Measures Define Air Pollution Construct, Pedro Alvarez;

Equating Items from Two Osteoporosis Quality-of-Life Instruments, Xavier Badia Llach, Luis Prieto, Montserrat Roset, Adolfo Diez-Perez, and Michael Herdman;

Measuring Change: Item Calibrations at Admission vs. Discharge, Larry Ludlow, Patricia L. Andres, and Stephen M. Hale;

Comparison of MASQ and Beck Depression Inventory, Zhixiao Wang and Kendon Conrad;

Dimensionality and Scaling Issues Measuring Activities of Daily Living (ADL), Weimo Zhu and Jae Kennedy;

Fundamental Measurement for MEPS/CAHPS Quality-of-Care Scales, William P. Fisher, Jr. and George Karabatsos;

Rasch Model Isolates Quality-of-Life Construct in Six WHOQOL-100 Data Sets, Emmanuel Ecosse, Alain Leplage, and the WHOQOL Rasch group;

Measurement in Health Research, Alan Tennant.

Book Review: Rasch Measurement in Health Sciences. Velozo C. … Rasch Measurement Transactions, 2005, 19:2 p. 1016

Rasch-Related Resources: Rasch Measurement YouTube Channel
Rasch Measurement Transactions & Rasch Measurement research papers - free	An Introduction to the Rasch Model with Examples in R (eRm, etc.), Debelak, Strobl, Zeigenfuse	Rasch Measurement Theory Analysis in R, Wind, Hua	Applying the Rasch Model in Social Sciences Using R, Lamprianou	El modelo métrico de Rasch: Fundamentación, implementación e interpretación de la medida en ciencias sociales (Spanish Edition), Manuel González-Montesinos M.
Rasch Models: Foundations, Recent Developments, and Applications, Fischer & Molenaar	Probabilistic Models for Some Intelligence and Attainment Tests, Georg Rasch	Rasch Models for Measurement, David Andrich	Constructing Measures, Mark Wilson	Best Test Design - free, Wright & Stone Rating Scale Analysis - free, Wright & Masters
Virtual Standard Setting: Setting Cut Scores, Charalambos Kollias	Diseño de Mejores Pruebas - free, Spanish Best Test Design	A Course in Rasch Measurement Theory, Andrich, Marais	Rasch Models in Health, Christensen, Kreiner, Mesba	Multivariate and Mixture Distribution Rasch Models, von Davier, Carstensen
Rasch Books and Publications: Winsteps and Facets
Applying the Rasch Model (Winsteps, Facets) 4th Ed., Bond, Yan, Heene	Advances in Rasch Analyses in the Human Sciences (Winsteps, Facets) 1st Ed., Boone, Staver	Advances in Applications of Rasch Measurement in Science Education, X. Liu & W. J. Boone	Rasch Analysis in the Human Sciences (Winsteps) Boone, Staver, Yale	Appliquer le modèle de Rasch: Défis et pistes de solution (Winsteps) E. Dionne, S. Béland
Introduction to Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets), Thomas Eckes	Rasch Models for Solving Measurement Problems (Facets), George Engelhard, Jr. & Jue Wang	Statistical Analyses for Language Testers (Facets), Rita Green	Invariant Measurement with Raters and Rating Scales: Rasch Models for Rater-Mediated Assessments (Facets), George Engelhard, Jr. & Stefanie Wind	Aplicação do Modelo de Rasch (Português), de Bond, Trevor G., Fox, Christine M
Exploring Rating Scale Functioning for Survey Research (R, Facets), Stefanie Wind	Rasch Measurement: Applications, Khine	Winsteps Tutorials - free Facets Tutorials - free	Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets) - free, J.M. Linacre	Fairness, Justice and Language Assessment (Winsteps, Facets), McNamara, Knoch, Fan

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