Research

Clinimetrics is a methodological discipline that focusses on the quality of measurement in medical and health care research. The quality of measurement includes both the quality of the measurement instruments and the quality of the performance of the actual measurements

The Knowledgecenter Measurement Instruments has a Clinimetrics working group that aims to improve the knowledge on clinimetrics by writing methodological scientific articles on clinimetric issues and by performing methodological and applied clinimetric research. The Clinimetrics working group consists of a group of researchers from difference departments and research institutes of the VU University and VU University Medical Center and outside, with interest and expertise in clinimetrics, psychometrics, epidemiology, statistics, and methodology development.

 

The Clinimetrics working group aims to play a leading role in methodological clinimetric research. New ideas and developments are begin discussed in the group with the aim to write and publish methodological articles.

 

One of the aims of the Knowledgecenter Measurement Instruments is to design, perform, and publish new clinimetric studies. We aim to stimulate researchers to perform (additional) research on the quality of the measurement instruments that they use in their studies. Such research is often desired because many measurement instruments are insufficiently validated in Dutch patients, or in specific (research) populations. Validation studies can often be performed with limited effort within clinical or other studies. We collaborate with many researchers in different fields of medical and health care research.

 

There is a need for more high quality systematic reviews of measurement properties of measurement instruments. These are reviews in which the content and measurement properties of all measurement instruments that aim to measure a particular concept, are critically appraised and compared. Systematic reviews of measurement properties are useful tools for selecting a measurement instrument for a certain purpose. In addition, it are useful tools to identify measurement instruments that need further validation.

 

There are insufficient systematic reviews of measurement instruments available in the literature and the available reviews are not always of good quality. The Knowledgecenter Measurement Instruments aims to stimulate and assist researchers in performing systematic reviews of measurement properties, especially in fields were many instruments exist for assessing a particular concept.

 

Click here to find an overview of all published systematic reviews of measurement properties of measurement instruments that intend to measure (aspects of) health status or (health-related) quality of life. You will also find more information on the methodology of systematic reviews of measurement properties. Finally, we present a PubMed search filter for use in systematic reviews of measurement properties.

 

If you are interested in performing a systematic review of measurement properties we are happy to share our methodology. Contact Dr. Caroline Terwee.

 

 

One of our most important projects is COSMIN. COSMIN is the acronym for COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement Instruments. COSMIN is an international group of researchers who aim to improve the selection of health measurement instruments. As part of this initiative, consensus was reached among a large group of international experts on a taxonomy and definitions of measurement properties, as well as standards for how these measurement properties should be assessed. These standards were included in a checklist for assessing the methodological quality of studies on measurement properties. This checklist can be used in systematic review of measurement properties to assess the quality of the included studies.