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PROMIS Pediatric Anger Scale: an item response theory analysis

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Abstract

Purpose

The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) aims to develop patient-reported outcome (PROs) instruments for use in clinical research. The PROMIS pediatrics (ages 8–17) project focuses on the development of PROs across several health domains (physical function, pain, fatigue, emotional distress, social role relationships, and asthma symptoms). The objective of the present study was to report on the psychometric properties of the PROMIS Pediatric Anger Scale.

Methods

Participants (n = 759) were recruited from public school settings, hospital-based outpatient, and subspecialty pediatrics clinics. The anger items (k = 10) were administered on one test form. A hierarchical confirmatory factor analytic model (CFA) was conducted to evaluate scale dimensionality and local dependence. Item response theory (IRT) analyses were then used to finalize the item scale and short form.

Results

CFA confirmed that the anger items are representative of a unidimensional scale, and items with local dependence were removed, resulting in a six-item short form. The IRT-scaled scores from summed scores and each score’s conditional standard error were calculated for the new six-item PROMIS Pediatric Anger Scale.

Conclusions

This study provides initial calibrations of the anger items and creates the PROMIS Pediatric Anger Scale, version 1.0

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Abbreviations

PROMIS:

Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System

PedsQL™:

Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™

HRQOL:

Health-related quality of life

PRO:

Patient-reported outcomes

CFA:

Confirmatory factor analysis

IRT:

Item response theory

LD:

Local dependence

DIF:

Differential item function

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the contribution of Harry A. Guess, MD, PhD to the conceptualization and operationalization of this research prior to his death. This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health through the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, Grant 1U01AR052181-01, and by SBIR contract HHSN-2612007-00013C with the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Information on the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) can be found at http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/ and http://www.nihpromis.org.

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Correspondence to Debra E. Irwin.

Appendix

Appendix

Listed below are the item stems for the six-item PROMIS Pediatric Anger Scale. All items use a 7-day recall period (the preface is “In the past seven days”) and a 5-point response scale with the options never (0), almost never (1), sometimes (2), often (3), and almost always (4).

Anger

  • I felt mad.

  • I was so angry I felt like yelling at somebody.

  • When I got mad, I stayed mad.

  • I felt fed up.

  • I was so angry I felt like throwing something.

  • I felt upset.

Summed score to scale score translation for these short forms is in Table 4.

Table 4 Summed score to scale score translation table for the anger items

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Irwin, D.E., Stucky, B.D., Langer, M.M. et al. PROMIS Pediatric Anger Scale: an item response theory analysis. Qual Life Res 21, 697–706 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-011-9969-5

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