Journal Article

The COSMIN checklist for assessing the methodological quality of studies on measurement properties of health status measurement instruments: an international Delphi study

Knol, Dirk L., Patrick, Donald L., de Vet, Henrica C. W., Terwee, Caroline B., Alonso, Jordi, Bouter, Lex M., Mokkink, Lidwine B., Stratford, Paul W.

2010

Overview

Background Aim of the COSMIN study (COnsensusbased Standards for the selection of health status Measurement INstruments) was to develop a consensus-based checklist to evaluate the methodological quality of studies on measurement properties. We present the COSMIN checklist and the agreement of the panel on the items of the checklist. Methods A four-round Delphi study was performed with international experts (psychologists, epidemiologists, statisticians and clinicians). Of the 91 invited experts, 57 agreed to participate (63%). Panel members were asked to rate their (dis) agreement with each proposal on a five-point scale. Consensus was considered to be reached when at least 67% of the panel members indicated 'agree' or 'strongly agree'. Results Consensus was reached on the inclusion of the following measurement properties: internal consistency, reliability, measurement error, content validity (including face validity), construct validity (including structural validity, hypotheses testing and cross-cultural validity), criterion validity, responsiveness, and interpretability. The latter was not considered a measurement property. The panel also reached consensus on how these properties should be assessed. Conclusions The resulting COSMIN checklist could be useful when selecting a measurement instrument, peerreviewing a manuscript, designing or reporting a study on measurement properties, or for educational purposes.

• Publisher: Springer,Springer Netherlands,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Applied statistics / Biostatistics / Clinical medicine / Construct validity / Delphi method / Delphi Technique / Epidemiology / Gold standard / Health / Health status / Health Status Indicators / Humans / Internationality / Medical research / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Outcome Assessment, Health Care - methods / Patients / Psychometrics / PSYCHOSOMETRICS METHODS AND STATISTICS / Public Health / Quality of Life / Quality of Life Research / Quantitative psychology / Questionnaires / Reproducibility of Results / Research Design / Research methodology / Research universities / Sample size / Sickness Impact Profile / Sociology / Statistics as Topic / Steering / Surveys and Questionnaires / Validity