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Use of item response theory to develop a return to work measure for acquired brain injury: The employment feasibility checklist.

BACKGROUND
The 2001 Feasibility Evaluation Checklist (FEC) is an assessment of work readiness for individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI). It establishes the integrity of basic safety, productivity, and interpersonal factors in neurorehabilitation and vocational settings. This study represents an effort to further development the FEC to increase its clinical utility.


OBJECTIVE
To redesign the FEC by conducting Item Response Theory (IRT) analyses on the study's results and combining those mathematical calibrations with clinical expert judgement. The result will be a new measure for use in clinical ABI neurorehabilitation and vocational settings: the Employment Feasibility Checklist (EFC).


METHODS
Seven participants with ABI were administered a situational assessment on multiple occasions by occupational therapists in a community rehabilitation clinic. The FEC was used to assess the participant's performance across three areas of basic employment feasibility: safety, productivity, and interpersonal factors. Results were analyzed with ITR Rasch analysis and then subjected to clinical expert judgment, resulting in adjustment recommendations for the FEC.


RESULTS
In this scale development study, IRT analysis of results from 89 observation trials was combined with expert clinical judgment resulting in a redesigned tool with increased clinical utility for persons with ABI. The EFC is a 12-item observational rating scale for employment feasibility constructs of Productivity and Interpersonal Relations, with an additional six item Workplace Safety subsection.


CONCLUSION
The EFC is a mathematically calibrated tool designed to gauge feasibility for competitive employment in clients with ABI. The tool may be useful in clinical neurorehabilitation settings and vocational rehabilitation settings.