Chiarotto, A, Bishop, A, Foster, NE, Duncan, K, Afolabi, E, Ostelo, RW and Paap, MCS (2018) Item response theory evaluation of the biomedical scale of the Pain Attitudes and Beliefs Scale. PLoS One, 13 (9). e0202539 - ?. ISSN 1932-6203

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Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The assessment of health care professionals' attitudes and beliefs towards musculoskeletal pain is essential because they are key determinants of their clinical practice behaviour. The Pain Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (PABS) biomedical scale evaluates the degree of health professionals' biomedical orientation towards musculoskeletal pain and was never assessed using item response theory (IRT). This study aimed at assessing the psychometric performance of the 10-item biomedical scale of the PABS scale using IRT. METHODS: Two cross-sectional samples (BeBack, n = 1016; DABS; n = 958) of health care professionals working in the UK were analysed. Mokken scale analysis (nonparametric IRT) and common factor analysis were used to assess dimensionality of the instrument. Parametric IRT was used to assess model fit, item parameters, and local reliability (measurement precision). RESULTS: Results were largely similar in the two samples and the scale was found to be unidimensional. The graded response model showed adequate fit, covering a broad range of the measured construct in terms of item difficulty. Item 3 showed some misfit but only in the DABS sample. Some items (i.e. 7, 8 and 9) displayed remarkably higher discrimination parameters than others (4, 5 and 10). The scale showed satisfactory measurement precision (reliability > 0.70) between theta values -2 and +3. DISCUSSION: The 10-item biomedical scale of the PABS displayed adequate psychometric performance in two large samples of health care professionals, and it is suggested to assess group-level professionals degree of biomedical orientation towards musculoskeletal pain.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: This is the final published version of the article (version of record). It first appeared online via Public Library of Science at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202539 - please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher.
Subjects: R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC925 Diseases of the musculoskeletal system
Divisions: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Primary Care Health Sciences
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Depositing User: Symplectic
Date Deposited: 28 Sep 2018 15:25
Last Modified: 28 Sep 2018 15:26
URI: https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/5384

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