title: PARADISE 24: A Measure to Assess the Impact of Brain Disorders on People's Lives.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To construct a metric of the impact of brain disorders on people's lives, based on the psychosocial difficulties (PSDs) that are experienced in common across brain disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  Psychometric study using data from a cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of 722 persons with 9 different brain disorders interviewed in four European countries: Italy, Poland, Spain and Finland. Questions addressing 64 PSDs were first reduced based on statistical considerations, patient's perspective and clinical expertise. Rasch analyses for polytomous data were also applied.
  
  
  METHODS
  In and outpatient settings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A valid and reliable metric with 24 items was created. The infit of all questions ranged between 0.7 and 1.3. There were no disordered thresholds. The targeting between item thresholds and persons' abilities was good and the person-separation index was 0.92. Persons' abilities were linearly transformed into a more intuitive scale ranging from zero (no PSDs) to 100 (extreme PSDs).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The metric, called PARADISE 24, is based on the hypothesis of horizontal epidemiology, which affirms that people with brain disorders commonly experience PSDs. This metric is a useful tool to carry out cardinal comparisons over time of the magnitude of the psychosocial impact of brain disorders and between persons and groups in clinical practice and research.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom; Department of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (IBE), Chair for Public Health and Health Services Research, Research Unit for Biopsychosocial Health, Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU), Munich, Germany; Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Alarcos
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cieza
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (IBE), Chair for Public Health and Health Services Research, Research Unit for Biopsychosocial Health, Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU), Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sabariego
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Anczewska
authors.affiliation: Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ballert
authors.affiliation: Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jerome
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bickenbach
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Department of Psychiatry, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Psychiatry Service, Instituto de Investigación del Hospital Universitario de La Princesa (IIS-IP), Madrid, Spain; Department of Psychiatry, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cabello
authors.affiliation: Neurology, Public Health and Disability Unit, Scientific Directorate, Neurological Institute Carlo Besta IRCCS Foundation, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Ambra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Giovannetti
authors.affiliation: A-Clinic Foundation, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Teemu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kaskela
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Department of Psychiatry, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Psychiatry Service, Instituto de Investigación del Hospital Universitario de La Princesa (IIS-IP), Madrid, Spain; Department of Psychiatry, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Blanca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mellor
authors.affiliation: A-Clinic Foundation, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Tuuli
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pitkänen
authors.affiliation: Neurology, Public Health and Disability Unit, Scientific Directorate, Neurological Institute Carlo Besta IRCCS Foundation, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Quintas
authors.affiliation: Neurology, Public Health and Disability Unit, Scientific Directorate, Neurological Institute Carlo Besta IRCCS Foundation, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Raggi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Świtaj
authors.affiliation: Multi-Country Studies, Department of Measurement and Health Information Systems, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Somnath
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chatterji
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011584:Psychology; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires