Psychometric validation of the revised SCOPA-Diary Card: expanding the measurement of non-motor symptoms in parkinson's disease

• Main Authors: White Michelle K, Buck Philip O, Rendas-Baum Regina, Castelli-Haley Jane
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2011-08-01
• Series: Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
• Subjects: Parkinson's disease; quality of life; SCOPA; diary; reliability; validity; non-motor symptoms
• Online Access: http://www.hqlo.com/content/9/1/69

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>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.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>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.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>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.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>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.</p>