| Measurement
Property |
Type |
What Is Assessed? |
FDA Review Considerations |
| Reliability |
Test-retest or intra-
interviewer reliability (for
interviewer-administered
PROs only) |
Stability of scores over time when no change
is expected in the concept of interest |
• Intraclass correlation coefficient
• Time period of assessment |
|
Internal consistency |
• Extent to which items comprising a scale
measure the same concept
• Intercorrelation of items that contribute
to a score
• Internal consistency |
• Cronbach’s alpha for summary scores
• Item-total correlations |
|
Inter-interviewer reliability
(for interviewer-administered
PROs only) |
Agreement among responses when the PRO
is administered by two or more different
interviewers |
• Interclass correlation coefficient |
| Validity |
Content validity |
Evidence that the instrument measures the
concept of interest including evidence from
qualitative studies that the items and domains
of an instrument are appropriate and
comprehensive relative to its intended
measurement concept, population, and use.
Testing other measurement properties will
not replace or rectify problems with content
validity. |
• Derivation of all items
• Qualitative interview schedule
• Interview or focus group transcripts
• Items derived from the transcripts
• Composition of patients used to develop content
• Cognitive interview transcripts to evaluate patient
understanding |
|
Construct validity |
Evidence that relationships among items,
domains, and concepts conform to a priori
hypotheses concerning logical relationships
that should exist with measures of related
concepts or scores produced in similar or
diverse patient groups |
• Strength of correlation testing a priori hypotheses
(discriminant and convergent validity)
• Degree to which the PRO instrument can distinguish
among groups hypothesized a priori to be different
(known groups validity) |
| Ability to detect
change |
|
Evidence that a PRO instrument can identify
differences in scores over time in individuals
or groups (similar to those in the clinical
trials) who have changed with respect to the
measurement concept |
• Within person change over time
• Effect size statistic |