Feasibility and Validity of Using Item Response Theory to Assess Cumulative Social Risk

Salene M.W. Jones (), Katherine J. Briant, Cecy Corona and Jason A. Mendoza
Additional contact information
Salene M.W. Jones: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Katherine J. Briant: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Cecy Corona: New Mexico State University
Jason A. Mendoza: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2023, vol. 169, issue 3, No 13, 1017-1032

Abstract: Abstract Social risks are patient-level effects of social determinants of health. Cumulative social risk, the total of multiple risks, predicts health outcomes such as cancer mortality. Current measures of cumulative social risk count the number of domains in which a patient has risks. We tested whether an item response theory (IRT) model could be an alternative method for measuring cumulative social risk. A population-based sample (n = 1118) was recruited from 13 counties of western Washington State. Participants completed a one-time survey online. Questions on social risk included two on housing instability, two on food insecurity, one on affording medical care and one on general financial health. Additional measures to test the construct validity of the cumulative social risk score included perceived discrimination, perceived stress, smoking status and having a usual place for healthcare. The IRT model fit the six social risk items. Social risk items ranged in severity from just above the mean (0.18 standard deviations) to substantially above the mean (4.18 standard deviations). IRT scores were positively and significantly associated with perceived discrimination (p

Keywords: Social determinants of health; Social needs; Housing stability; Food insecurity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-023-03189-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:soinre:v:169:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-023-03189-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11205-023-03189-4

Access Statistics for this article

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement is currently edited by Filomena Maggino

More articles in Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().