title: Simulating computer adaptive testing with the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire.
abstract: In a post hoc simulation study (N = 3,597 psychiatric outpatients), we investigated whether the efficiency of the 90-item Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ) could be improved for assessing clinical subjects with computerized adaptive testing (CAT). A CAT simulation was performed on each of the 3 MASQ subscales (Positive Affect, Negative Affect, and Somatic Anxiety). With the CAT simulation's stopping rule set at a high level of measurement precision, the results showed that patients' test administration can be shortened substantially; the mean decrease in items used for the subscales ranged from 56% up to 74%. Furthermore, the predictive utility of the CAT simulations was sufficient for all MASQ scales. The findings reveal that developing a MASQ CAT for clinical subjects is useful as it leads to more efficient measurement without compromising the reliability of the test outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Foundation for Benchmarking Mental Health Care.
authors.forename: Gerard
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6683-4628
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Flens
authors.affiliation: Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam.
authors.forename: Niels
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Smits
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Centre.
authors.forename: Ingrid
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Carlier
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Centre.
authors.forename: Albert M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: van Hemert
authors.affiliation: Foundation for Benchmarking Mental Health Care.
authors.forename: Edwin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Beurs
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003201:Computers; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010045:Outpatients; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires