Discrimination and reliability: equal partners? Understanding the role of discriminative instruments in HRQoL research: can Ferguson's Delta help? A response
2008
Understanding Discriminative Instruments in HRQoL Research
Commentary
Author Information
Author(s): Matthew Hankins
Primary Institution: King's College London, Department of Psychology (at Guy's), Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK
Hypothesis
Can Ferguson's Delta help in understanding the role of discriminative instruments in HRQoL research?
Conclusion
Reliability is more important than discrimination when evaluating HRQoL instruments.
Supporting Evidence
- Delta is a measure of how well a questionnaire can differentiate between individuals.
- Reliability coefficients do not indicate how much people differ from each other.
- Discriminative instruments should be validated and reliable to be useful.
Takeaway
This article discusses how to measure differences between people using health questionnaires and argues that just being reliable isn't enough; we also need to know how well these questionnaires can tell people apart.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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