Synonyms
Definition
Differential item functioning refers to the situation where members from different groups (age, gender, race, education, culture) on the same level of the latent trait (disease severity, quality of life) have a different probability of giving a certain response to a particular item.
Description
Differential item functioning (DIF) is a threat to the validity of a patient-reported outcome (PRO) instrument. DIF occurs when subjects on the same level of the latent trait, such as disease severity, answer differently to the same item depending on their group memberships (e.g., age group, gender, race) (Chang, 2005; Holland & Thayer, 1988). The validity of the instrument is threatened because the response to the DIF item is governed by something other than the construct that the instrument is intended to measure. For example, crying spells is one of the symptoms for patients with depression, but this concept is reported more by...
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Chen, WH., Revicki, D. (2014). Differential Item Functioning (DIF). In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_728
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_728
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