Dataset Information

Demographic characteristics do not decrease the utility of depressive symptoms assessments: examining the practical impact of item bias in four heterogeneous samples of older adults.

ABSTRACT: Previous studies have identified differential item function (DIF) in depressive symptoms measures, but the impact of DIF has been rarely reported. Given the critical importance of depressive symptoms assessment among older adults, we examined whether DIF due to demographic characteristics resulted in salient score changes in commonly used measures.Four longitudinal studies of cognitive aging provided a sample size of 3754 older adults and included individuals both with and without a clinical diagnosis of major depression. Each study administered at least one of the following measures: the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (20-item ordinal response or 10-item dichotomous response versions), the Geriatric Depression Scale, and the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale. Hybrid logistic regression-item response theory methods were used to examine the presence and impact of DIF due to age, sex, race/ethnicity, and years of education on the depressive symptoms items.Although statistically significant DIF due to demographic factors was present on several items, its cumulative impact on depressive symptoms scores was practically negligible.The findings support substantive meaningfulness of previously reported demographic differences in depressive symptoms among older adults, showing that these individual differences were unlikely to have resulted from item bias attributable to demographic characteristics we examined.

SUBMITTER: Dmitrieva NO

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4198512 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Demographic characteristics do not decrease the utility of depressive symptoms assessments: examining the practical impact of item bias in four heterogeneous samples of older adults.

Dmitrieva Natalia O NO Fyffe Denise D Mukherjee Shubhabrata S Fieo Robert R Zahodne Laura B LB Hamilton Jamie J Potter Guy G GG Manly Jennifer J JJ Romero Heather R HR Mungas Dan D Gibbons Laura E LE

International journal of geriatric psychiatry 20140415 1

<h4>Objective</h4>Previous studies have identified differential item function (DIF) in depressive symptoms measures, but the impact of DIF has been rarely reported. Given the critical importance of depressive symptoms assessment among older adults, we examined whether DIF due to demographic characteristics resulted in salient score changes in commonly used measures.<h4>Methods</h4>Four longitudinal studies of cognitive aging provided a sample size of 3754 older adults and included individuals bo ...[more]

PMID: 24737612

Similar Datasets

Project description:Background:Publication bias is a form of scientific misconduct. It threatens the validity of research results and the credibility of science. Although several tests on publication bias exist, no in-depth evaluations are available that examine which test performs best for different research settings. Methods:Four tests on publication bias, Egger's test (FAT), p-uniform, the test of excess significance (TES), as well as the caliper test, were evaluated in a Monte Carlo simulation. Two different types of publication bias and its degree (0%, 50%, 100%) were simulated. The type of publication bias was defined either as file-drawer, meaning the repeated analysis of new datasets, or p-hacking, meaning the inclusion of covariates in order to obtain a significant result. In addition, the underlying effect (β = 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5), effect heterogeneity, the number of observations in the simulated primary studies (N = 100, 500), and the number of observations for the publication bias tests (K = 100, 1,000) were varied. Results:All tests evaluated were able to identify publication bias both in the file-drawer and p-hacking condition. The false positive rates were, with the exception of the 15%- and 20%-caliper test, unbiased. The FAT had the largest statistical power in the file-drawer conditions, whereas under p-hacking the TES was, except under effect heterogeneity, slightly better. The CTs were, however, inferior to the other tests under effect homogeneity and had a decent statistical power only in conditions with 1,000 primary studies. Discussion:The FAT is recommended as a test for publication bias in standard meta-analyses with no or only small effect heterogeneity. If two-sided publication bias is suspected as well as under p-hacking the TES is the first alternative to the FAT. The 5%-caliper test is recommended under conditions of effect heterogeneity and a large number of primary studies, which may be found if publication bias is examined in a discipline-wide setting when primary studies cover different research problems.

Dataset Information

Demographic characteristics do not decrease the utility of depressive symptoms assessments: examining the practical impact of item bias in four heterogeneous samples of older adults.

Publications

Demographic characteristics do not decrease the utility of depressive symptoms assessments: examining the practical impact of item bias in four heterogeneous samples of older adults.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets