Multiplicative rating scales do not enable measurement of vision‐related quality of life

Abstract

Purpose: Many questionnaires for the measurement of visual impairment exist. One, the Houston Vision Assessment Test (HVAT), takes a different approach: the patient is asked to rate overall impairment and the proportion attributed to vision, then through multiplication the visual and non-visual (physical) impairments are calculated. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the scores derived from this approach can be considered to be measures. Methods: The participants were 193 cataract patients awaiting surgery (mean age 74.1 Ϯ 9.8 years, 54 per cent female and 53.6 per cent were awaiting first eye surgery), who self-administered the HVAT, which consists of 10 questions, whereby impairment on each activity and the proportion attributable to vision is rated. Therefore, total, visual and physical impairments are calculated. For each question, multiplying the impairment (five response categories) by the proportion due to eyesight (five categories) gives 10 possible levels of visual impairment. Assessment of the multiplicative rating scales included frequency of category use and hierarchical ordering of response categories using category thresholds. Summary statistics of Rasch analysis were generated for the rating scale and overall questionnaire performance. Results: In the multiplicative scale, higher response categories were under-utilised and thresholds were disordered, indicating that the categories did not function as intended. Some of the dysfunction arose from disordered thresholds in the 'proportion due to eyesight scale', but repairing this gave little improvement to the multiplicative scale. The ill-defined nature of the disordered categories precluded further repair by combining categories. Measurement precision, as indicated by person separation reliability, was poor (0.70). Conclusion: Rasch analysis demonstrated that the categories of the multiplied rating scale of the HVAT were not ordered, as the user would expect; this precludes measurement. This provides evidence against the use of multiplicative rating scales in quality-oflife questionnaires. It would be better to use a single rating scale for each construct of interest.

Ophthalmology and the Ageing Society

“…Our fi nding that the multiplicative rating scale of the MacDQoL was fl awed is supported by similar study fi ndings in which the poor functionality of other multiplicative rating scales has been demonstrated by Rasch analysis (Gothwal et al 2011 ) . These fi ndings may be explained by considering the fundamental underlying assumptions of multiplicative rating scales employing impairment and importance ratings.…”

“…Thus, researchers should consider using robust single scales instead (Gothwal et al 2011 ) . Thus, researchers should consider using robust single scales instead (Gothwal et al 2011 ) .…”

Visual Functioning and Quality of Life under Low Luminance: Evaluation of the German Low Luminance Questionnaire

“…This is in line with previous findings that ophthalmic questionnaires function optimally with no more than five response categories. 44 Overall, therefore, additional improvements in future research could be made to the LLQ's item content, item structure, wording, and response options to further improve its measurement properties.…”

Developing an Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Tool as Part of the Low Vision Assessment of Daily Activities Protocol

“…Four rating categories were chosen as this number is highly reproducible and allows for sufficient discrimination between the categories. 23,24 In addition, all tasks were timed until completion or until the participant gave up. In this pilot study, participants were allowed up to three attempts to complete a task.…”