Published in:
Open Access 01-12-2011 | Research
Psychometric validation of the revised SCOPA-Diary Card: expanding the measurement of non-motor symptoms in parkinson's disease
Published in: Health and Quality of Life Outcomes | Issue 1/2011
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Background
To identify key non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) to include in a daily diary assessment for off-time, revise the Scales for Outcomes of Parkinson's disease Diary Card (SCOPA-DC) to include these non-motor symptoms, and investigate the validity, reliability and predictive utility of the Revised SCOPA-DC in a U.S. population.
Methods
A convenience sample was used to recruit four focus groups of PD patients. Based on findings from focus groups, the SCOPA-DC was revised and administered to a sample of 101 PD patients. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the domain structure of the Revised SCOPA-DC. The reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, and ability to predict off-time of the Revised SCOPA-DC were then assessed.
Results
Based on input from PD patients, the Revised SCOPA-DC included several format changes and the addition of non-motor symptoms. The Revised SCOPA-DC was best represented by a three-factor structure: Mobility, Physical Functioning and Psychological Functioning. Correlations between the Revised SCOPA-DC and other Health-Related Quality of Life scores were supportive of convergent validity. Known-groups validity analyses indicated that scores on the Revised SCOPA-DC were lower among patients who reported experiencing off-time when compared to those without off-time. The three subscales had satisfactory predictive utility, correctly predicting off-time slightly over two-thirds of the time.
Conclusions
These findings provide evidence of content validity of the Revised SCOPA-DC and suggest that a three-factor structure is an appropriate model that provides reliable and valid scores to assess symptom severity among PD patients with symptom fluctuations in the U.S.