A new approach to selection and weighting of items in evaluative composite measurement scales.

Evaluative composite measurement scales (CMS) are increasingly used in medicine to measure complex constructs in the absence of a reference criterion or 'gold standard'. However, the level of measurement provided by these instruments has usually been given little attention. This paper explores the influence of the characteristics of the item set and weighting on the level of measurement of an evaluative CMS. The approach is illustrated with an application to the scoring system of the Nottingham Health Profile. Simulations are provided to indicate when the composite score of item responses, on an ordinal or pass-fail scale, could be considered to achieve the properties of an interval scale.

[1]  John Hattie,et al.  Methodology Review: Assessing Unidimensionality of Tests and ltenls , 1985 .

[2]  A. Venot,et al.  Methodological and statistical problems in the construction of composite measurement scales: a survey of six medical and epidemiological journals. , 1995, Statistics in medicine.

[3]  J. Mcewen,et al.  The development of a subjective health indicator. , 1980, Sociology of health & illness.

[4]  M. W. Richardson,et al.  The theory of the estimation of test reliability , 1937 .

[5]  David R. Cox,et al.  Quality‐Of‐Life Assessment: Can We Keep it Simple? , 1992 .

[6]  N. Draper,et al.  Applied Regression Analysis , 1966 .

[7]  James T. Townsend,et al.  Measurement Scales and Statistics: The Misconception Misconceived , 1984 .

[8]  L. Cronbach.  Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests , 1951 .

[9]  Leonard R. Sussman,et al.  Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio Typologies are Misleading , 1993 .

[10]  L. Thurstone.  A law of comparative judgment. , 1994 .

[11]  S S Stevens,et al.  On the Theory of Scales of Measurement. , 1946, Science.

[12]  R. Angier,et al.  The structure and synthesis of the liver L. casei factor. , 1946, Science.

[13]  Gregory J. Boyle,et al.  Does item homogeneity indicate internal consistency or item redundancy in psychometric scales , 1991 .

[14]  J. Gaito.  Measurement scales and statistics: Resurgence of an old misconception. , 1980 .

[15]  R. Hambleton,et al.  Fundamentals of Item Response Theory , 1991 .

[16]  J. Michell.  Measurement scales and statistics: A clash of paradigms. , 1986 .

[17]  S P McKenna,et al.  Weighting the seriousness of perceived health problems using Thurstone's method of paired comparisons. , 1981, International journal of epidemiology.

[18]  Frederic M. Lord,et al.  On the Statistical Treatment of Football Numbers. , 1953 .