Elaboração de instrumento para rastreio do risco de disfagia orofaríngea infantil

Pós-graduação em Fonoaudiologia - FFC

Psychometric Properties of the Oral Health Impact Profile and New Methodological Approach

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Dental anxiety: prevalence and evaluation of psychometric properties of a scale

Aim: To estimate the reliability and validity of the Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) and identify the prevalence and the effect of the socio-demographic characteristics of dental anxiety, in a sample of 212 adults. Methods: The psychometric sensitivity of the scale was assessed. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed, and the convergent validity and internal consistency were determined. The prevalence of anxiety was estimated, and the effect of socio-demographic variables on anxiety was assessed using structural equation modelling. Results: The participants’ mean age was 33.5 (SD = 15.6) years, and 62.3% were female. There was an adequate factorial adjustment of the scale in this sample. The convergent validity and internal consistency were adequate in the one-factor model. Regarding two-factor model, there was a high correlation (r) among the factors, which jeopardized the discriminant validity. A total of 47.6% of the participants (IC95% = 40.9 - 54.4) presented low levels of anxiety, 32.5% (IC95% = 26.2 - 38.9) moderate levels, and 12.3% (IC95% = 7.8 - 16.7) exacerbated levels. There was a non-significant effect of gender, age and education on the anxiety levels of this sample. Conclusion: We concluded that the one-factor model presented better psychometric qualities, that anxiety was highly prevalent and there was no significant effect of the demographic variables on anxiety, in this sample

Student's academic efficacy or Inefficacy? an example on how to evaluate the psychometric properties of a measuring instrument and evaluate the effects of item wording

This study evaluated the effect of item inversion on the construct validity and reliability of psychometric scales and proposed a theoretical framework for the evaluation of the psychometric properties of data gathered with psychometric instruments. To this propose, we used the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which is the most used psychometric inventory to measure burnout in different professional context (Students, Teachers, Police, Doctors, Nurses, etc…). The version of the MBI used was the MBI-Student Survey (MBI-SS). This inventory is composed of three key dimensions: Exhaustion, Cynicism and Professional Efficacy. The two first dimensions—which have positive formulated items—are moderate to strong positive correlated, and show moderate to strong negative correlations with the 3rd dimension—which has negative formulated items. We tested the hypothesis that, in college students, formulating the 3rd dimension of burnout as Inefficacy (reverting the negatively worded items in the Efficacy dimension) improves the correlation of the 3rd dimension with the other two dimensions, improves its internal consistency, and the overall MBI-SS’ construct validity and reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis results, estimated by Maximum Likelihood, revealed adequate factorial fit for both forms of the MBI-SS (with Efficacy) vs. the MBI-SSi (with Inefficacy). Also both forms showed adequate convergent and discriminant related validity. However, reliability and convergent validity were higher for the MBI-SSi. There were also stronger (positive) correlations between the 3 factors in MBI-SSi than the ones observed in MBI-SS. Results show that positively rewording of the 3rd dimension of the MBI-SS improves its validity and reliability. We therefore propose that the 3rd dimension of the MBI-SS should be named Professional Inefficacy and its items should be positively worded.