Sense of personal control: Can it be assessed culturally unbiased across Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians?

In recent decades, several studies have emphasized sense of personal control as a prominent aspect of Aboriginal health. However, one limitation is that instruments available to measure personal control were originally developed in western countries and validation for Aboriginal Australians has not been conducted. The aims of the current study were to evaluate whether the Sense of Personal Control Scale (SPCS) can be used to obtain culturally unbiased measurement of personal control across Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians and to assess the psychometric properties of the SPCS for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian. METHODS: The current study utilized two Australian subsamples retrieved from the Teeth Talk Study (n = 317) and the National Survey of Adult Oral Health 2004-2006 (n = 3,857) in which the SPCS was included. Graphical Loglinear Rasch Models (GLLRM) were used to fulfill the aims of the study. RESULTS: The Perceived Constraints subscale fitted a GLLRM for Aboriginal Australians after the exclusion of three items, while fit to any Rasch model (RM) or GLLRM model could not be found in the non-Aboriginal sample. The Mastery subscale fitted a GLLRM in the non-Aboriginal sample after the exclusion of one item. In the Aboriginal sample, two items of the Mastery subscale fitted the RM, however, two items cannot be considered as a scale. CONCLUSION: In the present study, we showed that the development of new items is crucial before the revised SPCS might constitute a valid and reliable measure of sense of personal control in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian populations, and it is possible to assess whether the SPCS can be measured without bias across these two populations.

Assessment of cognitive ability at conscription for the Danish army: Is a single total score sufficient?

Børge Priens Prøve (BPP) was developed for the Danish Army by psychologist Børge Prien in the 1950s, as a test of general cognitive ability for use at conscription for the Danish armed forces. The final BPP (1957) had four subtests; a Raven-like matrix subtest, and three subtests measuring verbal, numerical, and visuospatial ability. The BPP is a speeded test counting the number of correct responses within 45 minutes. Thus, we consider the BPP as a measure of "cognitive efficiency" rather than a pure measure of cognitive ability. The BPP is still in use.Using techniques available in 1960, Rasch concluded that the matrices and numerical tests appeared to satisfy the requirements of the Rasch (Probabilistic models for some intelligence and attainment tests, Danish Institute for Educational Research, Copenhagen; 1960) model, while the verbal and visuospatial tests did not. Since then, there have been, to our knowledge, no published studies of the psychometric scaling properties of the BPP, partly because the practice of the Danish draft board has been to record only the total score. We examine these properties by analysis of data from two cohorts (n = 9,491), using the Leunbach (A probabilistic measurement model for assessing whether two tests measure the same personal factor. The Danish Institute of Educational, Copenhagen, Denmark; 1976) model to assess whether the sum of the four subtests provides a statistically sufficient measure of a common latent trait. Since we found only weak evidence against fit to the Leunbach model, we claim that this warrants the use of a summarized total BPP score. We examined whether BPP subscales suffered from differential test functioning (DTF) relative to samples. Weak, and for practical purposes too weak, DTF was suggested for one subscale.

Brief Report: Psychometric Properties of the Ability in Behavior Assessment and Interventions for Teachers-Revised (ABAIT-R).

Given the importance of competencies in functional behavior assessment (FBA) and behavioral interventions among teachers for managing problem behaviors among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities, a previously reported ability in behavior assessment and interventions for teachers (ABAIT) needed improvements in the multiple-choices by adding a 'don't know' option. This study reports on the psychometric properties of this revised scale (ABAIT-R) among 102 special educators assessed using Rasch models. It was found that the model had good fit and a wide spread of difficulties (3.63 to - 2.60). ABAIT-R had good targeting (over 85%) and high reliability (0.79). The assumptions of the model were met recommending sufficiency for the use of summated score from ABAIT-R among teachers.

Assessment of depression in veterans across missions: a validity study using Rasch measurement models.

Background: Depression is a common psychopathological outcome following military deployment. Previous studies have reported differing rates of post-deployment depression, indicating that the toll of war differs across missions. However, it is unclear to what degree the varying prevalence is due methodological differences. Studies comparing rates of depression across cohorts using the same methodology and ensuring measurement invariance are rare, leaving us with limited knowledge on the actual depression prevalence variance across missions. Objective: Applying Rasch models (RM), we aim to validate a measure of depression distributed to all personnel deployed with the Danish Defense since 1998. The main focus was establishing a sufficient sum score and measurement invariance relative to deployment cohort. Method: Two cohorts of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 (ISAF7, N = 265) and 2013 (ISAF15, N = 271) were included. Participants filled out a questionnaire concerning their Psychological Reactions to International Missions (PRIM) approximately seven months after home-coming. The questionnaire included a 10-item scale of depression symptoms (PRIM-Depression). The validity of the PRIM-Depression was tested using RM with specific focus on differential item functioning (DIF) across the two cohorts. Results: The PRIM-Depression scale displayed excellent overall consistency and showed no problems with monotonicity or homogeneity. However, the full PRIM-Depression scale did not fit a pure RM. We therefore tested the fit of items to a graphical log-linear RM and found evidence of DIF for two items relative to cohort. We proceeded without these two items and tested the resulting 8-item version which fitted a pure RM without DIF on any of the exogenous variables. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the 10-item PRIM-Depression scale should be used to compare cohorts only with appropriate score equation. The 8-item version provides a sufficient statistic and can as such be applied using the raw score.

Healthcare Contacts after Myocardial Infarction According to Mental Health and Socioeconomic Position: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the long-term use of healthcare contacts to general practice (GP) and hospital after a first-time myocardial infarction (MI) according to mental health and socioeconomic position. METHODS: Population-based cohort study of all patients discharged with first-time MI in the Central Denmark Region in 2009 (n=908) using questionnaires and nationwide registers. We estimated adjusted incidence rates and incidence rate ratios (IRR) for GP and hospital contacts according to depressive and anxiety symptoms, educational level and cohabitation status. RESULTS: During the 24-month period after the MI, patients with anxiety symptoms had 24% more GP contacts (adjusted IRR 1.24, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.12-1.36) than patients with no anxiety symptoms. In contrast, patients with depressive symptoms (1.05, 0.94-1.16) and with short and medium education (<10 years: 0.96, 0.84-1.08; 10-12 years: 0.91, 0.80-1.03) and patients living alone (0.95, 0.87-1.04) had the same number of GP contacts as their counterparts (patients with no depressive symptoms, with long education [>12 years] and patients living with a partner). During the first 6 months after the MI, patients living alone had 13% fewer hospital contacts (0.87, 0.77-0.99), patients with short education had 16% fewer hospital contacts (<10 years: 0.84, 0.72-0.98) and patients with anxiety symptoms had 27% fewer hospital contacts (0.73, 0.62-0.86) than their counterparts. In contrast, patients with depressive symptoms (0.92, 0.77-1.10) and medium education (10-12 years: 1.05, 0.91-1.22) had the same number of hospital contacts as their counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that patients with depressive symptoms, short and medium education and patients living alone have a lower long-term use of healthcare contacts following MI than patients without these risk factors. Patients with depressive symptoms and low socioeconomic position would be expected to have a higher need of healthcare after MI as they have a poorer prognosis.

[Unclear effect of influenza vaccination in healthy adults]. / Usikker effekt af influenzavaccination af raske voksne--en gennemgang af et Cochranereview.

At some Danish workplaces, healthy employees are offered an influenza vaccination, although vaccination has not been proven to have a protective effect on healthy adults. This article gives an overview of the effect of influenza vaccination on healthy adults based on the results from the Cochrane review "Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy adults" and new studies in the field of interest. These studies show a limited effect on influenza, influenza-like illness, lost workdays, physician visits and days of illness.

Reducing the item number to obtain same-length self-assessment scales: a systematic approach using result of graphical loglinear Rasch modeling.

The Revised Danish Learning Styles Inventory (R-D-LSI) (Nielsen 2005), which is an adaptation of Sternberg-Wagner Thinking Styles Inventory (Sternberg, 1997), comprises 14 subscales, each measuring a separate learning style. Of these 14 subscales, 9 are eight items long and 5 are seven items long. For self-assessment, self-scoring and self-interpretational purposes it is deemed prudent that subscales measuring comparable constructs are of the same item length. Consequently, in order to obtain a self-assessment version of the R-D-LSI with an equal number of items in each subscale, a systematic approach to item reduction based on results of graphical loglinear Rasch modeling (GLLRM) was designed. This approach was then used to reduce the number of items in the subscales of the R-D-LSI which had an item-length of more than seven items, thereby obtaining the Danish Self-Assessment Learning Styles Inventory (D-SA-LSI) comprising 14 subscales each with an item length of seven. The systematic approach to item reduction based on results of GLLRM will be presented and exemplified by its application to the R-D-LSI.