Validation of the LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire in cochlear implanted infants and toddlers.

OBJECTIVES: The LittlEARS Auditory Questionnaire (LEAQ) has so far been validated to assess auditory development in groups of normal-hearing children in over 20 different languages. Considering the huge variability in auditory development of CI children, especially since candidacy criteria have been relaxed, additional evidence to validate the use of LEAQ scores in this particular population is needed. The aim of this study is to provide evidence for the reliability and validity of LEAQ scores for assessing the auditory development of CI infants and toddlers based on an evaluation of LEAQ's internal structure and its relation to other variables. METHODS: The study was prospective, with sequential enrolment and within-subject repeated measures. It included 122 children with profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss implanted at 6-22 months of age. All children were evaluated with the Polish version of LEAQ on the first day of CI activation and at each of four follow-up visits related to sound processor fitting. The study was undertaken in the light of current psychometric thinking about how assessment instruments should be validated. The main aim of the study was to obtain evidence for the validity of interpreting LEAQ measures from CI children in terms of auditory development. First, in order to collect evidence for score reliability and validity based on LEAQ's internal structure, the psychometric properties of LEAQ scores from CI children were determined. A second step was to confirm validity by investigating the effect of concomitant variables on LEAQ scores. Correlations between LEAQ score and duration of hearing aid (HA) use, and between LEAQ score and duration of CI use, were investigated. Additionally, group differences in LEAQ scores between: 1) early and late implanted children; 2) children with long and short HA experience prior to implantation; and 3) children who showed responses over a wide frequency range from using their HAs (prior to implantation) vs those who did not. RESULTS: On each of the five administrations of LEAQ, the item difficulty indices increased (meaning the items became easier) and over the series they progressively increased with a range of: 0.01-0.62, 0.03-0.92, 0.09-1.00, 0.26-1.00, and 0.52-1.00. At the same time, item-total correlations were in the ranges: 0.09-0.77, 0.26-0.62, 0.00-0.65, 0.00-0.65, and 0.00-0.67. Cronbach's alpha values were above 0.80 for all administrations. A positive correlation between LEAQ score and duration of HA use, and subsequent duration of CI use (hearing experience) was found. When the children were stratified into groups according to age at cochlear implantation, duration of HA use before implantation, and audibility provided by HAs prior to implantation, the differences between the groups were reflected in both their rate of auditory development and their LEAQ score. CONCLUSION: The interpretation of LEAQ scores from CI children in terms of auditory development was supported by the validity evidence of internal structure and from a logical relationship to other variables. (1) Psychometric properties - item difficulty, item-total correlations, and Cronbach's alpha values - indicate that LEAQ measures are highly consistent and reliably gauge the level of a CI child's auditory development. (2) There was a positive correlation between LEAQ scores and the duration of hearing experience with HAs and a later CI; similarly, there were significant differences between groups of children stratified according to the age at cochlear implantation, duration of HA use before implantation, and audibility provided by HAs prior to implantation, all of which demonstrate the expected relation between LEAQ score and concomitant variables.

Production and evaluation of a Spanish version of the LittlEARS(®) Auditory Questionnaire for the assessment of auditory development in children.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To adapt the LittlEARS(®) Auditory Questionnaire (LEAQ) into Spanish and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the questionnaire. METHODS: The LEAQ was translated into Spanish by a back-translation design. Following the Guidelines for Adapting Tests of the International Test Commission (ITC), for the first time with the LEAQ adaptations, two qualitative methods were used to evaluate the translated version of the LEAQ: an expert appraisal method followed by cognitive interviewing. Having improved the Spanish version of the LEAQ with these evaluations, a psychometric analysis was conducted. 215 parents of children with normal hearing aged between 1.7 and 24.0 months participated in the study. Corrected item-total correlations were calculated to analyze to what extent items distinguish levels of auditory development of assessed children. Cronbach's alpha coefficient - to evaluate internal consistency across items - was also calculated. To obtain validity evidence, correlations between item-total score and age were calculated. A non-linear regression model was also estimated to obtain normative data for expected and minimum value of total scores from the questionnaire according to age. RESULTS: Expert appraisal and cognitive interviewing pointed out some translation errors and difficulties parents had while responding to the Spanish LEAQ. Such errors and difficulties were fixed in the Spanish LEAQ version applied for psychometric analysis. Corrected item-total correlations ranged from 0.15 to 0.75. Cronbach's alpha coefficient value was 0.92, indicating that the measurements are highly reliable. The value of the correlation between total scores and age was 0.86 (p<001). The regression analysis conducted to obtain normative data shows that 79% of the variation in the total scores can be explained by age. CONCLUSIONS: The results of psychometric analyses provide evidence supporting the use of the Spanish version of the LEAQ as a valid and culturally appropriate tool to assess the development of auditory behaviour in Spanish children who are 24 months old or younger.

A productivity map of cognitive pretest methods for improving survey questions.

Interest in cognitive pretest methods for evaluating survey questionnaires has been increasing for the last three decades. However, analysing the features of the scientific output in the field can be difficult due to its prevalence in public and private institutes whose main mission is not scientific research. The aim of this research is to characterize the current state of scientific output in the field by means of two bibliometric studies for the period from 1980 to 2007. Study 1 analysed documents obtained from the more commonly used bibliographic databases. Study 2 supplemented the body of documents from Study 1 with documents from non-indexed journals, conference papers, etc. Results show a constant growth in the number of publications. The wide dispersion of publication sources, together with the highlighted role of the public and private institutions as centres of production, can also be identified as relevant characteristics of the scientific output in this field.

A productivity map of cognitive pretest methods for improving survey questions / Mapa de productividad de los métodos cognitivos de pretest para optimizar las preguntas de las encuestas

Interest in cognitive pretest methods for evaluating survey questionnaires has been increasing for the last three decades. However, analysing the features of the scientific output in the field can be difficult due to its prevalence in public and private institutes whose main mission is not scientific research. The aim of this research is to characterize the current state of scientific output in the field by means of two bibliometric studies for the period from 1980 to 2007. Study 1 analysed documents obtained from the more commonly used bibliographic databases. Study 2 supplemented the body of documents from Study 1 with documents from non-indexed journals, conference papers, etc. Results show a constant growth in the number of publications. The wide dispersion of publication sources, together with the highlighted role of the public and private institutions as centres of production, can also be identified as relevant characteristics of the scientific output in this field(AU)

Durante las últimas tres décadas se ha producido un creciente interés por los métodos cognitivos de pretest. Sin embargo, analizar las características de la productividad científica en el campo puede resultar difícil dada su prevalencia en institutos públicos y privados. El objetivo de esta investigación es caracterizar el estado actual de la producción científica en el campo en el período desde 1980 a 2007 por medio de dos estudios bibliométricos. El Estudio 1 analizó los documentos obtenidos de las bases bibliográficas más comúnmente utilizadas. El Estudio 2 completó la base de documentos del Estudio 1 a partir de revistas no-indexadas, comunicaciones en congresos, etc. Los resultados muestran un crecimiento constante en el número de publicaciones. La amplia dispersión de las fuentes de publicación, junto con el destacable papel de instituciones públicas y privadas como centros de producción, pueden también señalarse como características relevantes de la producción científica en este campo(AU)

Regresión logística: alternativas de análisis en la detección del funcionamiento diferencial del ítem / Logistic regression: analytic strategies in differential item functioning detection

El presente estudio compara varias estrategias analíticas para la detección del Funcionamiento Diferencial del Ítem (DIF) mediante regresión logística. Las distintas alternativas de análisis se comparan sometiendo a contrastación distintos tipos de ítems en los que se han simulado diferentes condiciones de DIF. En todos los casos se ha trabajado con tests de 75 ítems dicotómicos. Se simularon tres tipos de DIF (uniforme, no-uniforme simétrico y no-uniforme asimétrico) con diferentes condiciones decantidad de DIF (0.0, 0.3 y 1.0 para el parámetro de dificultad, y 0.0, 0.25 y 1.0 para el parámetro de discriminación). En términos generales, si atendemos tanto al criterio de mayor potencia en la detección del DIF como de menor costo computacional se recomienda el uso del análisis de regresión logística implementando la estrategia que somete a comprobación la presencia conjunta de DIF uniforme y no-uniforme, complementándola con la significación estadística de la interacción para distinguir entre los dos tipos de DIF (AU)

The present study compares several analytic strategies, whose relative efficacy has yet to be evaluated, for detecting DifferentialItem Functioning (DIF) by means of logistic regression. The strategies are compared by checking different item types in which various DIF conditions are simulated. In all cases 75-item, dichotomous response tests were used. Three types of DIF (uniform, symmetric non-uniform and asymmetric non-uniform) were simulated with three conditions for the amount of DIF (0.0, 0.3 and 1.0 for the difficulty parameter, and 0.0, 0.25 and 1.0 for the discrimination parameter). In general, and according to the criteria of greatest power in detecting DIF and low computational cost, it is recommended that applied psychologists and educators who analyse, translate and adapt tests, use logistic regression analysis with the strategy that checks for the presence of both uniform and non-uniform DIF; this should be complemented by calculating interaction significance in order to distinguish between the two types of DIF (AU)