COSMIN Review About Assessment Tools for Sexuality Knowledge in People with Intellectual Disability

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Public Health
• Disability Studies

Background:

• Assessing sexuality knowledge in individuals with intellectual disabilities is important but lacks adequate measurement tools.
• Existing self-reported questionnaires often have insufficient data on their psychometric properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically appraise, compare, and summarize the measurement quality and psychometric properties of self-reported sexuality knowledge questionnaires for people with intellectual disabilities.
• To identify reliable assessment tools for this population.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search across major databases (Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE).
• Application of the COSMIN methodology for systematic reviews of patient-reported outcome measures.
• Analysis of psychometric properties reported in 18 studies covering nine assessment tools.

Main Results:

• Psychometric properties of most instruments were indeterminate or poorly reported due to incomplete data and inappropriate statistical methods.
• Moderate quality evidence supports the psychometric properties of the reviewed scales.
• The Detection of Sexual Abuse Risk Screening Scale and the Inventory of Sexual Knowledge of People with Intellectual Disability show potential but require validation for non-Spanish populations.

Conclusions:

• There is a significant need for future research to develop and validate robust measurement instruments for sexual knowledge in people with intellectual disabilities.
• Existing tools require updating, as many studies are nearly a decade old, potentially impacting their relevance and accuracy.