Evaluating bias in validity studies of developmental/behavioral screening tests.
This commentary describes six potential problems and sources of bias that are often overlooked and under-reported in validity studies of developmental/behavioral screening tests, namely, 1) problems with small samples, 2) verification bias, 3) inappropriate/non-equivalent test bias, 4) procedural bias, 5) incomplete reporting of results, and 6) spectrum bias. These issues are then applied to review an unusually complete published report of a screening test validity study along with a discussion of how results may affect application in different settings.
Camp
Bonnie W
BW
Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO 80222, USA. campbw@msn.com
D000293:Adolescent; D015982:Bias; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000592:standards*; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity