Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

PROMIS® Parent Proxy Report Scales: an item response theory analysis of the parent proxy report item banks

  • Published:
Quality of Life Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

The objective of the present study is to describe the item response theory (IRT) analysis of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) pediatric parent proxy-report item banks and the measurement properties of the new PROMIS® Parent Proxy Report Scales for ages 8–17 years.

Methods

Parent proxy-report items were written to parallel the pediatric self-report items. Test forms containing the items were completed by 1,548 parent–child pairs. CCFA and IRT analyses of scale dimensionality and item local dependence, and IRT analyses of differential item functioning were conducted.

Results

Parent proxy-report item banks were developed and IRT parameters are provided. The recommended unidimensional short forms for the PROMIS® Parent Proxy Report Scales are item sets that are subsets of the pediatric self-report short forms, setting aside items for which parent responses exhibit local dependence. Parent proxy-report demonstrated moderate to low agreement with pediatric self-report.

Conclusions

The study provides initial calibrations of the PROMIS® parent proxy-report item banks and the creation of the PROMIS® Parent Proxy-Report Scales. It is anticipated that these new scales will have application for pediatric populations in which pediatric self-report is not feasible.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

PROMIS® :

Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System

FDA:

Food and drug administration

HRQOL:

Health-related quality of life

NIH:

National Institute of Health

References

  1. Ader, D. N. (2007). Developing the patient-reported outcomes measurement information system (PROMIS). Medical Care, 45(Suppl 1), S1–S2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Reeve, B. B., Hays, R. D., Bjorner, J. B., Cook, K. F., Crane, P. K., Teresi, J. A., et al. (2007). Psychometric evaluation and calibration of health-related quality of life item banks: Plans for the patient-report outcomes measurement information system (PROMIS). Medical Care, 45(Suppl 1), S22–S31.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Cella, D., Yount, S., Rothrock, N., Gershon, R., Cook, K., Reeve, B., et al. (2007). The patient-reported outcomes measurement information system (PROMIS): Progress of an NIH roadmap cooperative group during its first two years. Medical Care, 45(Suppl 1), S3–S11.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Irwin, D. E., Stucky, B. D., Thissen, D., DeWitt, E. M., Lai, J. S., Yeatts, K., et al. (2010). Sampling plan and patient characteristics of the PROMIS pediatrics large-scale survey. Quality of Life Research, 19, 585–594.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Irwin, D. E., Stucky, B. D., Langer, M. M., Thissen, D., DeWitt, E. M., Lai, J. S., et al. (2010). An item response analysis of the pediatric PROMIS anxiety and depressive symptoms scales. Quality of Life Research, 19, 595–607.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Varni, J. W., Stucky, B. D., Thissen, D., DeWitt, E. M., Irwin, D. E., Lai, J. S., et al. (2010). PROMIS pediatric pain interference scale: An item response theory analysis of the pediatric pain item bank. Journal of Pain, 11, 1109–1119.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. DeWitt, E. M., Stucky, B. D., Thissen, D., Irwin, D. E., Langer, M., Varni, J. W., Lai, J. S., Yeatts, K. B., & DeWalt, D. A. (2011). Construction of the eight-item patient-reported outcomes measurement information system pediatric physical function scales: built using item response theory. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 64(7), 794–804.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Yeatts, K., Stucky, B. D., Thissen, D., Irwin, D. E., Varni, J. W., DeWitt, E. M., et al. (2010). Construction of the pediatric asthma impact scale (PAIS) for the patient-reported outcomes measurement information system (PROMIS). Journal of Asthma, 47, 295–302.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Sprangers, M. A. G., & Aaronson, N. K. (1992). The role of health care providers and significant others in evaluating the quality of life of patients with chronic disease: A review. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 45, 743–760.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Achenbach, T. M., McConaughy, S. H., & Howell, C. T. (1987). Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: Implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 213–232.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Varni, J. W., Katz, E. R., Seid, M., Quiggins, D. J. L., Friedman-Bender, A., & Castro, C. M. (1998). The pediatric cancer quality of life inventory (PCQL): I Instrument development, descriptive statistics, and cross-informant variance. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21, 179–204.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Upton, P., Lawford, J., & Eiser, C. (2008). Parent-child agreement across child health-related quality of life instruments: A review of the literature. Quality of Life Research, 17, 895–913.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Varni, J. W., Limbers, C. A., & Burwinkle, T. M. (2007). Parent proxy-report of their children’s health-related quality of life: An analysis of 13, 878 parents’ reliability and validity across age subgroups using the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 5(2), 1–10.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Campo, J. V., Comer, D. M., Jansen-McWilliams, L., Gardner, W., & Kelleher, K. J. (2002). Recurrent pain, emotional distress, and health service use in childhood. Journal of Pediatrics, 141, 76–83.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Janicke, D. M., Finney, J. W., & Riley, A. W. (2001). Children’s health care use: A prospective investigation of factors related to care-seeking. Medical Care, 39, 990–1001.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Varni, J. W., & Setoguchi, Y. (1992). Screening for behavioral and emotional problems in children and adolescents with congenital or acquired limb deficiencies. American Journal of Diseases of Children, 146, 103–107.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Varni, J. W., Burwinkle, T. M., & Lane, M. M. (2005). Health-related quality of life measurement in pediatric clinical practice: An appraisal and precept for future research and application. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 3(34), 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Reise, S. P., & Waller, N. G. (2009). Item response theory and clinical measurement. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 5, 27–48.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Embretson, S. E., & Reise, S. P. (2000). Item response theory for psychologists. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Irwin, D. E., Gross, H. E., Stucky, B. D., Thissen, D., DeWitt, E. M., Lai, J. S., Amtmann, D., Khastou, L., Varni, J. W., & DeWalt, D. A. (2011). Development of the PROMIS® pediatrics proxy-report item banks. Manuscript under review.

  21. Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2007). Mplus user’s guide [Computer Software] (5th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Reise, S. P., Moore, T. M., & Haviland, M. G. (2010). Bifactor models and rotations: Exploring the extent to which multidimensional data yield univocal scale scores. Journal of Personality Assessment, 92, 544–559.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Cai, L., du Toit, S. H. C., & Thissen, D. (in press). IRTPRO: Flexible, multidimensional, multiple categorical IRT modeling [Computer software]. Chicago, IL: Scientific Software International.

  24. Chen, W. H., & Thissen, D. (1997). Local dependence indexes for item pairs using item response theory. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 22, 265–289.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Lord, F. M. (1977). A study of item bias using item characteristic curve theory. In Y. H. Portinga (Ed.), Basic problems in cross-cultural psychology (pp. 19–29). Amsterdam: Swets and Zeitlinge.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Cai, L. (2008). SEM of another flavour: Two new applications of the supplemented EM algorithm. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 61, 309–329.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Benjamini, Y., & Hochberg, Y. (1995). Controlling the false discovery rate: A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 57, 289–300.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Steinberg, L., & Thissen, D. (2006). Using effect sizes for research reporting: Examples using item response theory to analyze differential item functioning. Psychological Methods, 11, 402–415.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Orlando, M., & Thissen, D. (2003). Further investigation of the performance of S-X2: An item fit index for use with dichotomous item response theory models. Applied Psychological Measurement, 27, 289–298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Thissen, D., Nelson, L., Rosa, K., & McLeod, L. D. (2001). Item response theory for items scored in more than two categories. In D. Thissen & H. Wainer (Eds.), Test scoring (pp. 141–186). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Eiser, C., & Morse, R. (2001). Can parents rate their child’s health-related quality of life? Results from a systematic review. Quality of Life Research, 10, 347–357.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health through the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, Grant U01AR052181. Information on the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) can be found at http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/ and http://www.nihPROMIS.org.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, College of Architecture, Texas A&M University, 3137 TAMU, College Station, TX, 77843-3137, USA

    James W. Varni

  2. Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    David Thissen, Yang Liu & Hally Gorder

  3. RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA

    Brian D. Stucky

  4. Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Debra E. Irwin

  5. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Rheumatology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Esi Morgan DeWitt

  6. Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    Jin-Shei Lai

  7. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Dagmar Amtmann

  8. Division of General Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Darren A. DeWalt

Authors
  1. James W. Varni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David Thissen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Brian D. Stucky
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yang Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Hally Gorder
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Debra E. Irwin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Esi Morgan DeWitt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Jin-Shei Lai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Dagmar Amtmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Darren A. DeWalt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James W. Varni.

Appendix: item parameters and short form scoring tables

Appendix: item parameters and short form scoring tables

See Tables 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.

Table 4 Emotional distress item parameters
Full size table
Table 5 Fatigue item parameters
Full size table
Table 6 Physical functioning item parameters
Full size table
Table 7 Pain interference item parameters
Full size table
Table 8 Peer relations item parameters
Full size table
Table 9 Asthma impact item parameters
Full size table
Table 10 Scoring tables for the depressive symptoms, anxiety, anger, lack of energy, and tired parent proxy scales
Full size table
Table 11 Scoring tables for the upper extremity/dexterity, mobility, pain interference, peer relations, and asthma impact parent proxy scales
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Varni, J.W., Thissen, D., Stucky, B.D. et al. PROMIS® Parent Proxy Report Scales: an item response theory analysis of the parent proxy report item banks. Qual Life Res 21, 1223–1240 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-011-0025-2

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-011-0025-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation