Reliability and convergent-discriminant validity of a Spanish version of the Hallucinogen Rating Scale (HRS) were assessed in two differentiated populations of hallucinogen users involving the retrospective assessment of drug effects. In Study 1 (immediate assessment), 75 European users of the South American hallucinogenic drink ayahuasca answered the HRS 4 h after drug intake in their habitual...

Continuous client feedback offers great promise for improving treatment outcomes. Because of their feasibility for everyday clinical use, the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) and the Session Rating Scale (SRS) enjoy popularity in the US and have been translated in various languages, including Dutch. The present study investigated the psychometric properties of the Dutch translations of ORS and SRS an...

This study addresses the question of willingness to pay (WTP) for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in order to alleviate menopausal symptoms. The woman obtains utility from consumption of goods and health. The purchase of a treatment is represented as a shift in the health production function during the treatment period. The mean WTP for the HRT is estimated using a parametric and a non-parame...

In many countries, an athlete’s performance at sporting competitions is often used as part of the selection criteria for entry into college. These criteria could be biased depending upon the procedures utilized by the authorities in a particular country. The purpose of this study was to calibrate, by using the Rasch rating scale model, the judge-based weights associated with the different quali...

For more than 30 years, underrepresentation of certain racial, cultural, and income groups in gifted and talented programs has been documented as a serious problem. Not only does this issue make gifted programs appear as if they are designed solely for upper class, dominant-culture individuals, but it also means that talented students from diverse backgrounds are not having their needs met. Thi...

BACKGROUND Few studies have employed the item response theory in examining reliability. We conducted this study to examine the effect of Rating Scale Categories (RSCs) on the reliability and fit statistics of the Malay Spiritual Well-Being Scale, employing the Rasch model. METHODS The Malay Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) with the original six; three and four newly structured RSCs was distr...

BACKGROUND Pruritus is a common and frustrating symptom in hemodialysis (HD) patients and 5-D itch scale is proposed as a reliable measurement of pruritus. However, information regarding 5-D itch scale categories is currently unavailable. We explored optimal cut-offs 5-D itching scale based on numerical rating scale (NRS) categories in HD patients. METHODS Four hundred and nine HD patients in...

Psychologists have long been struck by individuals’ limitations in expressing their internal sensations, impressions, and evaluations via rating scales. Instead of using an absolute scale, individuals rely on reference points from recent experience. This relativity of judgment limits the informativeness of responses on surveys, questionnaires, and evaluation forms. Fortunately, the cognitive pr...

OBJECTIVE To compare clinical rating scales of blepharospasm severity with involuntary eye closures measured automatically from patient videos with contemporary facial expression software. METHODS We evaluated video recordings of a standardized clinical examination from 50 patients with blepharospasm in the Dystonia Coalition's Natural History and Biorepository study. Eye closures were measur...

The objective of the study was to consider five methods for valuing health states with respect to their comparability (convergent validity, value functions) and reliability. Valuation tasks were performed by 104 student volunteers using five frequently used valuation methods: standard gamble (SG), time trade-off (TTO), rating scale (RS), willingness-to-pay (WTP) and the paired comparisons metho...