title: Responsiveness to change: an aspect of validity, not a separate dimension.
abstract: Assessment of health-related quality of life is accelerating in naturalistic observational studies, clinical trials, and clinical practice. Some researchers have argued that the ability of a quality of life instrument to detect clinically important changes over time, "responsiveness," is a distinct psychometric property from the measure's reliability and validity. We discuss the important implications of this argument and counter that responsiveness is actually one indication of a measure's validity.
authors.affiliation: RAND, Social Policy Department, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138.
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Hays
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hadorn
mesh_terms: D006703:Ill-Housed Persons / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D013997:Time Factors