Norming clinical questionnaires with multiple regression: the Pain Cognition List

Area of Science:

• Psychometrics
• Clinical Psychology
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are crucial in clinical practice for diagnosis and treatment evaluation.
• Interpreting PROM scores often relies on comparison with normative data.
• Traditional norming methods using subgroup tables can be limited in scope and stability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present and validate a multiple regression approach for norming clinical questionnaires.
• To demonstrate the advantages of this method over traditional subgroup norming.
• To improve the accuracy and reliability of patient score interpretation.

Main Methods:

• Utilized multiple regression analysis to norm raw scores from the Pain Cognition List (PCL-2003).
• Regressed PCL-2003 scores on demographic and other relevant patient variables.
• Compared the proposed method with traditional age/gender-based norm tables.

Main Results:

• Multiple regression identified relevant patient variables for norming, enhancing validity.
• This method provides continuous and more stable norms across prognostic variables, improving reliability.
• The approach offers a more nuanced interpretation of patient scores than traditional methods.

Conclusions:

• Multiple regression offers a superior method for norming clinical questionnaires.
• This technique enhances the validity and reliability of patient assessments in clinical settings.
• The proposed norming strategy supports more accurate clinical decision-making and treatment evaluation.