What do you do if your carefully-constructed questionnaire is not detecting change in a treatment group? Often this is because of the way that the questionnaire items are weighted. Fortunately, we can use Item Response Theory to develop a more sensitive scoring system.
Developing a Sensitive Score
The Problem
Our client’s questionnaire was not detecting change, because all of the items were weighted equally. This caused problems in differentiating between patients and showing when they had improved.
The Solution
We used Item Response Theory to show which items were the most effective at discriminating between levels of severity, and derived an alternate scoring system.
The Value
Thanks to our improved scoring system, our client was able to demonstrate to regulators that patients in the treatment group improved in the patient-relevant aspects of their health, compared to the control group.