Background: Dietary intake is an important determinant of health. Its adjustments can improve the overall risk for noncommunicable diseases, especially for patients with obesity. Dietary assessment ...tools are commonly used to measure selfreported habitual energy intake (EI) and the overall diet. However, these tools are affected by voluntary and unvoluntary misreporting. Therefore, a preference for technology-based approaches has emerged. SNAQ is an image-based food recognition app. It has been developed to remotely measure dietary intake with a real-time transfer of data. Its validity in the measurement of EI has not been reported yet. The DLW methods is the gold standard for assessment of average daily energy expenditure (EE) in free-living conditions. It is commonly used to test the validity of other dietary assessment tools. Methods: Dietary intake was recorded for seven days with SNAQ in 30 study participants with and 30 without obesity. Urine samples for DLW analysis were obtained with a two-point protocol. Participants captured before and after pictures of each dietary item. Pictures were automatically uploaded, dietary items and portion sizes were estimated by a trained deep-learning model, and energy, macro-, and micronutrients were calculated. Paired t-tests, mean differences, linear correlations, and Bland-Altman limits of agreement were performed. Results: EI was mostly underestimated by SNAQ when compared to the DLW method. However, underestimation of EI by SNAQ correlated with the changes in body weight during the study week. Conclusions: We report a low validity of this method for the measurement of energy intake in free-living, healthy-weight adult women. SNAQ underestimated total EI when compared to the DLW estimations of EE. However, SNAQ seemed to perform better in participants with obesity. Further refinement of the use of SNAQ is needed for investigation of EI in free-living conditions.
Abstract
In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to problems of external validity, specifically to methodological approaches for both quantitative generalizability and transportability of ...study results. However, most approaches to these issues have considered external validity separately from internal validity. Here we argue that considering either internal or external validity in isolation may be problematic. Further, we argue that a joint measure of the validity of an effect estimate with respect to a specific population of interest may be more useful: We call this proposed measure target validity. In this work, we introduce and formally define target bias as the total difference between the true causal effect in the target population and the estimated causal effect in the study sample, and target validity as target bias = 0. We illustrate this measure with a series of examples and show how this measure may help us to think more clearly about comparisons between experimental and nonexperimental research results. Specifically, we show that even perfect internal validity does not ensure that a causal effect will be unbiased in a specific target population.
Different perspectives of validity in psychiatry Telles Correia, Diogo
Journal of evaluation in clinical practice,
October 2017, 2017-Oct, 2017-10-00, 20171001, Letnik:
23, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
It is important to improve our understanding about what might be the specific characteristics of mental disorders to strengthen the scientific credibility of psychiatry and to clarify its position ...among other medical and nonmedical sciences.
On the other hand, this issue has diagnostic, research, therapeutic, legal, financial, and moral implications.
Some authors defend a realistic and absolutist attitude towards validity and others an instrumental and relativistic stance. Regarding the organization of concepts, dimensional or categorical approaches have both advantages and disadvantages.
Regarding the methodology by which validity is sought, it can be oriented externally or internally to the concept in question. On the other hand, the validity can be expert driven or data driven, the research can be based on disorders or in symptoms and quantitative or qualitative methods may be used.
In this article, we review all these different kinds of perspectives that can be taken towards the definition of validity in psychiatry and the methodology to search for it.
Child and adolescent patients may display mental health concerns within some contexts and not others (e.g., home vs. school). Thus, understanding the specific contexts in which patients display ...concerns may assist mental health professionals in tailoring treatments to patients' needs. Consequently, clinical assessments often include reports from multiple informants who vary in the contexts in which they observe patients' behavior (e.g., patients, parents, teachers). Previous meta-analyses indicate that informants' reports correlate at low-to-moderate magnitudes. However, is it valid to interpret low correspondence among reports as indicating that patients display concerns in some contexts and not others? We meta-analyzed 341 studies published between 1989 and 2014 that reported cross-informant correspondence estimates, and observed low-to-moderate correspondence (mean internalizing: r = .25; mean externalizing: r = .30; mean overall: r = .28). Informant pair, mental health domain, and measurement method moderated magnitudes of correspondence. These robust findings have informed the development of concepts for interpreting multi-informant assessments, allowing researchers to draw specific predictions about the incremental and construct validity of these assessments. In turn, we critically evaluated research on the incremental and construct validity of the multi-informant approach to clinical child and adolescent assessment. In so doing, we identify crucial gaps in knowledge for future research, and provide recommendations for "best practices" in using and interpreting multi-informant assessments in clinical work and research. This article has important implications for developing personalized approaches to clinical assessment, with the goal of informing techniques for tailoring treatments to target the specific contexts where patients display concerns.
Twenty-five years ago, this journal published two articles reporting the development and initial validation of the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Since then the literature on alexithymia ...has burgeoned with the vast majority of this research using the TAS-20, including multiple language translations of the scale.
In this article we review the psychometric literature evaluating various aspects of the reliability and validity of the TAS-20 and examine some of the controversies surrounding the scale and the construct it assesses. We reflect on the ways in which the TAS-20 has advanced the measurement of the construct and theory of alexithymia. We also discuss recent developments and some future directions for the measurement of alexithymia.
Although not without some controversy, the preponderance of the accumulated evidence over a 25-year period supports various aspects of the reliability and validity of the TAS-20, including findings from confirmatory factor analytic and convergent and discriminant validity studies which are consistent with Nemiah et al.'s (Nemiah et al., 1976 3) and Taylor and colleagues (Taylor et al., 1997 9) theoretical formulations and definition of the alexithymia construct.
Based on the accumulated empirical evidence of 25 years, we conclude that the TAS-20 is a reliable and valid instrument and accurately reflects and measures the construct as it was originally defined by Nemiah et al. Nemiah et al. (1976) 3 as composed of deficits in affect awareness and expression and pensée opératoire (operational thinking). Clinicians and researchers can use the TAS-20 to confidently measure alexithymia, the roots of which have foundations in psychosomatic medicine.
•In this article we review comprehensively the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20).•We examine some controversies surrounding the scale and the construct it assesses.•The preponderance of the accumulated evidence supports the psychometri properties of the scale.•The TAS-20 accurately reflects and measures the alexithymia construct as it was originally described by Nemiah and Sifneos.
Grit is a construct that is widely studied by educational researchers and that has generally been enthusiastically received by educational practitioners. This essay highlights that many of the core ...claims about grit have either been unexamined or are directly contradicted by the accumulated empirical evidence. Specifically, there appears to be no reason to accept the combination of perseverance and passion for long-term goals into a single grit construct, nor is there any support for the claim that grit is a particularly good predictor of success and performance in an educational setting or that grit is likely to be responsive to interventions. I describe avenues for future research on grit that may help to clarify if grit can contribute to our understanding of success and performance. These avenues include examinations of possible configural relationships between passion and perseverance, whether grit or grit facets represent necessary but not sufficient conditions for performance, interactions between ability and either grit or the facets of grit in the prediction of performance, possible polynomial relationships between grit or grit facets and performance, and improvements in the manner in which grit is assessed. Alternative predictors of performance that are more strongly related to success and performance and that may be more responsive to interventions are also discussed.
The Passion Scale, based on the dualistic model of passion, measures 2 distinct types of passion: Harmonious and obsessive passions are predictive of adaptive and less adaptive outcomes, ...respectively. In a substantive-methodological synergy, we evaluate the construct validity (factor structure, reliability, convergent and discriminant validity) of Passion Scale responses (N = 3,571). The exploratory structural equation model fit to the data was substantially better than the confirmatory factor analysis solution, and resulted in better differentiated (less correlated) factors. Results from a 13-model taxonomy of measurement invariance supported complete invariance (factor loadings, factor correlations, item uniquenesses, item intercepts, and latent means) over language (French vs. English; the instrument was originally devised in French, then translated into English) and gender. Strong measurement partial invariance over 5 passion activity groups (leisure, sport, social, work, education) indicates that the same set of items is appropriate for assessing passion across a wide variety of activities-a previously untested, implicit assumption that greatly enhances practical utility. Support was found for the convergent and discriminant validity of the harmonious and obsessive passion scales, based on a set of validity correlates: life satisfaction, rumination, conflict, time investment, activity liking and valuation, and perceiving the activity as a passion.
Introduction
Adolescence is considered as a particularly vulnerable period for body image disturbance. Body esteem is defined as the self-evaluation of one’s own body or appearance.
Objectives
...Validate the Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA) in Tunisian adolescents.
Methods
We conducted a cross-sectional study among adolescents who attend Tunisian high school from 11 October 2021 to 11 November 2021.
We translated the BESAA into dialectal Tunisian Arabic based on the translation back-translation method. The validity of the scale was evaluated through content validity, reliability and construct validity. We used the Arabic version of Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale as an external validator.
Results
We recruited 340 adolescents aged between 12 and 19 years’ old. The translated version was considered satisfactory. The internal consistency showed a good result with a Cronbach Alpha of 0,830. The correlation between items and subscales demonstrated statistically significant and logical results. Statistically significant correlations were found between the BESAA and its external validator the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (r= 0,422; p< 0,01). The exploratory analysis related three factors similarly to the original version of the questionnaire and in confirmatory analysis. The scale demonstrated good model fit statistics as follow: Comparative fit index= 0,87; goodness of fit index=0,81; adjusted goodness of fit index=0,77; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation=0,1 and Standardized Root Mean Square Residual=0,09.
Conclusions
Our BESAA version can be reliably used to conduct further studies and researches on body esteem in the Tunisian population.
Disclosure of Interest
None Declared
Objective
The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the Professional Fulfillment Index (PFI), a 16-item instrument to assess physicians’ professional fulfillment and burnout, ...designed for sensitivity to change attributable to interventions or other factors affecting physician well-being.
Methods
A sample of 250 physicians completed the PFI, a measure of self-reported medical errors, and previously validated measures including the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), a one-item burnout measure, the World Health Organization’s abbreviated quality of life assessment (WHOQOL-BREF), and PROMIS short-form depression, anxiety, and sleep-related impairment scales. Between 2 and 3 weeks later, 227 (91%) repeated the PFI and the sleep-related impairment scale.
Results
Principal components analysis justified PFI subscales for professional fulfillment, work exhaustion, and interpersonal disengagement. Test-retest reliability estimates were 0.82 for professional fulfillment (α = 0.91), 0.80 for work exhaustion (α = 0.86), 0.71 for interpersonal disengagement (α = 0.92), and 0.80 for overall burnout (α = 0.92). PFI burnout measures correlated highly (
r
≥ 0.50) with their closest related MBI equivalents. Cohen’s
d
effect size differences in self-reported medical errors for high versus low burnout classified using the PFI and the MBI were 0.55 and 0.44, respectively. PFI scales correlated in expected directions with sleep-related impairment, depression, anxiety, and WHOQOL-BREF scores. PFI scales demonstrated sufficient sensitivity to detect expected effects of a two-point (range 8–40) change in sleep-related impairment.
Conclusions
PFI scales have good performance characteristics including sensitivity to change and offer a novel contribution by assessing professional fulfillment in addition to burnout.
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