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Calibration of an item bank for work capacity in cardiological rehabilitation patients
Anne Haschke1, Birgit Abberger, Evelyn Müller
1Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Germany.
Insights
A new item bank was developed to assess work capacity in cardiovascular rehabilitation patients. This tool helps prevent work loss and can be used for computer adaptive tests or short-form questionnaires.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Rehabilitation Medicine
- Psychometrics
Background:
- Preventing work loss is crucial in cardiovascular rehabilitation.
- Current diagnostic tools for work limitation are not comprehensive or economical.
- This study calibrated an item bank for assessing work capacity in cardiovascular rehabilitation patients.
Purpose of the Study:
- To calibrate an item bank for assessing work capacity in cardiovascular rehabilitation patients.
- To establish a psychometrically sound instrument for evaluating work limitations.
- To provide a basis for developing efficient assessment tools.
Main Methods:
- Utilized an existing item pool (166 items) from orthopedic rehabilitation.
- Recruited 349 cardiovascular rehabilitation patients from 14 German centers.
- Applied exploratory factor analysis and Rasch analysis (RUMM2030) to assess work capacity dimensions, model fit, and item properties.
Main Results:
- Identified two factors: cognitive and physical work capacity.
- Initial Rasch model fit was poor but improved after data refinement.
- Final item banks included 20 items for cognitive and 18 for physical work capacity, demonstrating satisfactory psychometric properties (unidimensionality, good person separation).
Conclusions:
- The calibrated item bank meets high psychometric standards for assessing work capacity in cardiovascular rehabilitation.
- This validated instrument can inform strategies to prevent work loss.
- The item bank can be adapted for computer adaptive testing or a concise short-form questionnaire.
Background:
Prevention of work loss is a core objective of cardiovascular rehabilitation. However, comprehensive and economic diagnostic instruments on work limitation are missing. The present study describes the calibration of an item bank for work capacity in cardiovascular rehabilitation patients.
Design And Methods:
This study was based on an item pool (166 items) for assessing work capacity in orthopaedic rehabilitation patients. A total of 349 cardiovascular rehabilitation patients were recruited from 14 German rehabilitation inpatient centres. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine underlying dimensions of work capacity. Rasch analysis was applied to test for fit of the model, item fit, unidimensionality, particularly local independence and differential item functioning using RUMM2030.
Results:
Two independent factors (cognitive work capacity/physical work capacity) were found. Fitting of the data to the Rasch model was initially poor (significant item-trait interaction for both factors; p < 0.001). After rescoring disordered categories, excluding misfitting items and items with differential item functioning, 20 and 18 items remained for cognitive work capacity and physical work capacity. Item-trait interaction (cognitive work capacity p = 0.24; physical work capacity p = 0.95) and person separation index (cognitive work capacity = 0.81; physical work capacity = 0.85) were satisfactory. Unidimensionality was given for both factors.
Conclusions:
The calibrated item bank provides the basis to assess work capacity in cardiovascular rehabilitation patients, fulfilling high psychometric standards. Further, the item bank could be either used to develop a computer adaptive test or an economic short-form questionnaire.
