Development of a Parent-Report Cognitive Function Item Bank Using Item Response Theory and Exploration of its Clinical Utility in Computerized Adaptive Testing

Abstract

Objective The purpose of this study is to report the reliability, validity, and clinical utility of a parent-report perceived cognitive function (pedsPCF) item bank. Methods From the U.S. general population, 1,409 parents of children aged 7–17 years completed 45 pedsPCF items. Their psychometric properties were evaluated using Item Response Theory (IRT) approaches. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and discriminant function analysis were used to predict clinical problems on child behavior checklist (CBCL) scales. A computerized adaptive testing (CAT) simulation was used to evaluate clinical utility. Results The final 43-item pedsPCF item bank demonstrates no item bias, has acceptable IRT parameters, and provides good prediction of related clinical problems. CAT simulation resulted in correlations of 0.98 between CAT and the full-length pedsPCF. Conclusions The pedsPCF has sound psychometric properties, U.S. general population norms, and a brief-yet-precise CAT version is available. Future work will evaluate pedsPCF in other clinical populations in which cognitive function is important.