HEDS is part of the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield. We undertake research, teaching, training and consultancy on all aspects of health related decision science, with a particular emphasis on health economics, HTA and evidence synthesis.

Tuesday 6 March 2018

New Short Course - The Application of Psychometrics for Measuring Health Outcomes and Quality of Life

The Application of Psychometrics for Measuring Health Outcomes and Quality of Life - 2 part course (can be done together or individually)

Part 1: 2 day course - Mon 14th - Tues 15th May 2018

Part 2: 3 day course - Weds 16th - Fri 18th May 2018

Part 1: The aim of this 2 day course is to provide participants with an introduction to psychometrics as applied to health. It will cover the core psychometric and statistical methods used in scale construction and the development of multi-item patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). Sessions will be delivered by external staff Professor Jakob Bue Bjorner - Optum Patient Insights and Georgina Jones - Leeds becket University, who have an international reputation in psychometric methods and questionnaire development, analysis and interpretation and ScHARR Staff Anju Keetharuth. The course will be interactive and practical. Sessions will be delivered using lectures and individual and small group practical exercises using real world examples.

Image of The Edge Sheffield
The Edge Sheffield
By the end of this course participants should be able to:

  • Identify the key stages involved in scale construction and development
  • Understand the qualitative process involved in the development of a PROM and item generation
  • Describe the different ways of scoring and scaling a PROM and the theory underpinning these
  • Understand exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) factor analysis and be able to carry out EFA using SPSS
  • Understand what is meant by reliability, validity, and responsiveness and be able to analyse and interpret these using SPSS
  • Explore the above concepts using datasets from a range of existing disease-specific and generic PROMs
  • Be aware of the use of different software other than SPSS where applicable.
Part 2: The aim of this 3 day course is to provide participants with an introduction to advanced psychometric models in analysis of multi-item patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). The course will cover confirmatory factor analytic methods for categorical data, Rasch models, and other items response theory (IRT) models. Sessions will be delivered by external staff Jakob Bue Bjorner - Optum Patient Insights, who has an international reputation in advanced psychometric methods and ScHARR Staff Anju Kaeetharuth. The course will be interactive and practical. Sessions will be delivered using lectures and individual and small group practical exercises using real world examples.

By the end of this course participants should be able to:
  • Perform item-level confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of PROMs using Mplus software
  • Understand the assumptions of CFA models, evaluate model fit, and revise the model
  • Understand the similarities and differences between CFA models, Rasch models and other IRT models
  • Perform IRT analyses using the Mplus software
  • Understand the assumptions of Rasch and IRT models and the principles for testing the models
  • Use results from IRT analyses to develop or select the optimal PROM for a particular research purpose
  • Be aware of the use of other software for CFA, Rasch and IRT analyses.

Link to further information on Part 1 of the course https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/scharr/shortcourseunit/psychometricspart1-2018
Link to further information on Part 2 of the course https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/scharr/shortcourseunit/psychometricspart2-2018

Link to our Online Store, where all of our ScHARR short course bookings are initially processed: