EORTC CAT Full Validation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Validation of the EORTC computerized adaptive testing (CAT) instrument - Feasibility and Field Study
IRAS ID
146043
Contact name
Teresa E Young
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
East & North Herts NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 30 days
Research summary
The EORTC QLQ-C30 is a questionnaire to assess Quality of Life (QL). It is suitable for use in all cancers. Scales derived from the questions measure 14 domains of QL. The domains (and number of questions) include physical (5) and emotional(4)functioning plus the symptoms of pain(2)and fatigue(3). All patients complete the same 30 items either using pen/paper or electronically. The EORTC QL Group have been developing ‘Item banks’ which are collections of questions to better measure each domain. e.g the physical functioning item bank has 51 items ranging from, “Are you able to run long distances” to, “Do you spend most of the day in bed”. During the preceeding project all the items in an item bank were shown to 1000 + patients and the data used to develop a computer alogorithm based on Item Response Theory (IRT). Using this algorithm patients can start by answering a question of moderate ability and IRT determines the next most informative item to ask to calculate a scale score. This is repeated until the precision is not improved or a pre-determined maximum number of items have been answered. Questions can be tailored to the patient’s responses and a more accurate estimate of the domain can be made with the minimum number of questions. This is known as Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT). As the Item banks are finalised the whole package needs validating using CAT and IRT to demonstrate equivalence to the original QLQ-C30
REC name
London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/0738
Date of REC Opinion
20 Apr 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion