Background: Integration of assessment with education is vital and ought to be performed regularly to enhance learning. There are many assessment methods like Multiple-choice Questions, Objective Structured Clinical Examination, Objective Structured Practical Examination, etc. The selection of the appropriate method is based on the curricula blueprint and the target competencies. Although MCQs has the capacity to test students’ higher cognition, critical appraising, problem-solving, data interpretation, and testing curricular contents in a short time, there are constraints in its analysis. The authors aim to accentuate some consequential points about psychometric analysis displaying its roles, assessing its validity and reliability in discriminating the examinee’s performance, and impart some guide to the faculty members when constructing their exam questions bank. Methods: Databases such as Google Scholar and PubMed were searched for freely accessible English articles published since 2010. Synonyms and keywords were used in the search. First, the abstracts of the articles were viewed and read to select suitable match, then full articles were perused and summarized. Finally, recapitulation of the relevant data was done to the best of the authors’ knowledge. Results: The searched articles showed the capacity of MCQs item analysis in assessing questions’ validity, reliability, its capacity in discriminating against the examinee’s performance and correct technical flaws for question bank construction. Conclusion: Item analysis is a statistical tool used to assess students’ performance on a test, identify underperformed items, and determine the root causes of this underperformance for improvement to ensure effective and accurate students’ competency judgment. Keywords: assessment, difficulty index, discrimination index, distractors, MCQ item analysis
Background: Bronchial asthma is a chronic respiratory problem characterized by a reversible hyper-responsive airway obstruction that is provoked by allergens, infections, or nonspecific triggers. The study aims to assess the coexistence of atopy and allergies among children with asthma.Methods: This single-center study was conducted at Mohamed El-Amin H. Hospital, Sudan. A free online sample size calculator was used. A specially designed form was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using the SPSS version 20.0.Results: A total of 300 participants were enrolled in the study, with a mean age of 7.46 ± 3.93 years. The male-to-female ratio was 1.3:1. A total of 215 (71.6%) children had a family history of asthma; atopy was allergic rhinitis in 108 (36%), eczema in 53 (17.7%), food allergy in 38 (14%), and allergic conjunctivitis in 29 (9.7%). A significant association was observed between male gender and family history of asthma, atopy, and coexisting personal history of atopy, P = 0.002, 0.004, and 0.001, respectively. All participants who had atopy had allergic rhinitis; 53 (49%) had atopic dermatitis, 29 (26.8%) had coexisting allergic conjunctivitis, and food allergies were found in 38 (35.2%) participants. Common food allergies found were eggplants, fish, cow milk, and banana. Atopy and allergies were common among those who were 6–10 years old, however, only allergic rhinitis was statistically significant with age (P = 0.021).Conclusion: Combined family history of asthma and atopy was common, few had atopy only, and fewer had neither family history nor atopy. Atopy found was allergic rhinitis, conjunctivitis, eczemas, and food allergy.
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