Clinimetrics is the scientific discipline that aims to (1) develop methods of assessing the properties of health measurement instruments, (2) apply those methods to develop new, or evaluate existing, health measurement instruments, with the aim (3) to improve the quality of measurements. The choice of an appropriate measurement instrument is a key issue in all scientific research. Measurement instruments are required to assess outcomes (e.g. to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions), to diagnose, and to prognosticate. Approaches to gathering data vary widely, from physical examinations to laboratory tests, from imaging techniques to self-report questionnaires. Clinical and health researchers always need to find the best instruments for their particular research and, if none are available, develop new ones.

The course is on evaluation of the quality of measurement instruments and on the design and evaluation of the quality of clinimetric studies. The emphasis is on knowing “what to measure”, by a detailed definition of the construct of interest, based on conceptual models. We continue by discussing measurement theories such as classical test theory and item response theory. For multi item instruments, dimensionality (factor analysis) internal consistency are important issues. Specific sessions will focus on reliability (particularly the distinction between reliability and measurement error), validity (with the emphasis on content validity and hypotheses testing) and responsiveness. We will also pay attention to the interpretability of an instrument’s scores.

There will be lectures with working groups in between, to discuss the content of the lectures and to practice with assessment and interpretation of the various measurement properties. For one assignment, i.e. on the calculation and interpretation of measurement error and reliability, a computer with SPSS is required.

The course is offered as a 6 days online-course variant in which the course is spread over 2 weeks.

The online course roughly looks like this:

Note the times indicated for the working groups are the local Amsterdam times. Amsterdam is located in the Central European Time time zone, also known as Central European Time (MET, GMT +1).

Groups 1 and 2 are the best choice for students from Asia;
Groups 3 and 4 are the best choice for students from North and South America

If you register for the course, please indicate in which group you want to participate. If a group is full, you can no longer choose it and we will remove it from the website. It is not possible to change groups because the groups will consist of a maximum of 10/11 people.
During the working groups you can also ask questions about the lectures.
All course material is published on Canvas. You will receive a login for Canvas no later than January 22, 2024.

The course is designed for healthcare practitioners and researchers who are active in medical, allied health, psychological, or behavioural research and who deal with the development, evaluation, and interpretation of health measurements.

Attendants are expected to have at least basic knowledge of epidemiological and statistical methods.

The course materials (lectures, assignments, feedback of the assignments etc) are available on Canvas, our digital learning environment. The documents will remain available on Canvas for at least one year.

To be able to do the computer practicals of this course you will need:

SPSS; if you don’t have SPSS on your laptop, you can purchase SPSS through Surfspot at a very reasonable price. If you do not want to purchase SPSS, you can use the trial version that IBM makes available. See SPSS Software | IBM

Henrica C. W. de Vet, Caroline B. Terwee, Lidwine B. Mokkink, Dirk L. Knol, Measurement in Medicine. 2011. Cambridge University Press. ISBN:9780521133852

Students participating in the course as part of the Master’s programme Epidemiology need to pass the exam in order to complete the course.

Students not participating in Master’s programme Epidemiology who sign up for this course as a separate / single course can optionally register for the exam. The examination fee is € 160 per registration.

You can register for the exam via the website: Exams. Registration will close 3 weeks prior to the exam.

Please note that you need to pass the exam in order to receive credits (EC).

A certificate of participation will be granted to all students who have attended at least 80% of the classes. The number of contact hours will be stated on the certificate.

Only for Dutch medical specialists!

If you wish to be considered for accreditation points by the KNMG , you must sign the attendance list on the last day of the course.

To qualify for the accreditation points, you must have been present the whole course.