Rasch Analysis of Social Attitude Barriers and Facilitators to Participation for Individuals with Disabilities.

Forty-six of 604 participants did not complete the Social Attitude measures, although the paper reports no significant differences between those who completed them and those who did not. The study included only adults with stroke, spinal cord injury, or traumatic brain injury from three Midwestern metropolitan areas, so it may not apply to other disabilities, regions, or social circumstances. The two-day assessment may have selected people who could travel and were healthier, limiting generalizability. The measures capture self-perceived social attitudes, and some people may be unaware of structural discrimination. Some items showed meaningful differential item functioning by ethnicity or impairment group, but the authors retained them because scores with and without those items were correlated at 0.997 for ethnicity and at 0.998 and 0.991 for impairment group. The paper reports psychometric results and calls for future studies to test interventions and health or participation outcomes, so it does not show that using the item banks changes those outcomes.

The article text states that all authors declared no conflicts of interest. The supplied publication types note research support from NIH extramural and non-U.S. government sources.

Do not conclude that these item banks prove a treatment works or that the measured barriers are objective environmental facts. The paper validates a self-perceived social attitude measure and does not test interventions or participation outcomes.