The Development of a New Computer Adaptive Test to Evaluate Anxiety in Caregivers of Individuals With Traumatic Brain Injury: TBI-CareQOL Caregiver-Specific Anxiety.
Noelle E Carlozzi, Michael A Kallen, Angelle M Sander and 6 others
PMID 29958902WHAT IT FOUND
A new 6-item questionnaire for caregivers of people with TBI gave consistent scores.
A score of 60 or higher means more anxiety than 84% of TBI caregivers; 70 or higher means more distress than 95.5%. It is not a diagnosis.
Key findings
01The final 27-item bank had no items flagged for age, education, or caregiver status bias.
02The computer adaptive version most often asked 4 items and produced scores similar to the full 27-item bank.
03The short form gave similar scores when repeated after 3 weeks.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The sample had few parent and male caregivers, so item bias for those groups could not be examined. Many service member or veteran caregivers had unknown TBI severity because military medical records were unavailable at one site. Retest data came only from University of Michigan, and 25.9% completed the retest survey. The study did not establish whether the measure changes over time or responds to treatment. The authors state the scale is not a screen for clinical anxiety by itself and that other diagnostic assessments are needed.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include an author conflict of interest statement. The publication types list NIH extramural and U.S. government non-PHS research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use this measure to diagnose anxiety. The study developed and tested a questionnaire in caregivers of people with TBI. The authors state it is not a clinical anxiety screen and that other diagnostic assessments are needed.