Advancing the Measurement of Executive Functioning in Pediatric Chronic Pain

Youth with chronic pain often report executive functioning difficulties, many of which have been linked to poor treatment adherence and health-related quality of life in adults with chronic pain, as well as in other pediatric chronic health populations. Despite the extensive implications for functional impairment, executive functioning remains understudied in pediatric chronic pain. Measurement approaches have lacked clear theoretical guidance, resulting in only some domains of executive functioning being investigated. To date, the methods used to measure executive functioning have been inconsistent, ranging from self-report measures of everyday executive functioning in home and school contexts to standardized neuropsychological tests. We argue for enhanced measure validation efforts and increased clarity in the approaches chosen to measure executive functioning in pediatric chronic pain to better guide research efforts in this area, thus yielding clearer clinical implications.

The Use of Remote Monitoring Technologies: A Review of Recent Regulatory Scientific Advices, Qualification Opinions, and Qualification Advices Issued by the European Medicines Agency

Aims: Recently, the use of novel remote monitoring technologies (RMTs) in trials has gained much interest. To facilitate regulatory learning, we evaluated qualification opinions (QOs) and advices (QAs) and scientific advices (SAs) of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) to gain insight in the types of devices that are intended to be used in clinical trials for supporting/submitting application for obtaining marketing authorization (registration trials) and the main recommendations of the CHMP.Methods: QOs, QAs, and SAs of the CHMP that assessed RMTs between 2013 and 2019 were eligible for our study. The following information was extracted from the documents: year of advice/opinion, device and endpoints used, type of endpoint (primary, secondary, exploratory, or safety), and main recommendations of the CHMP.Results: In total two QOs, four QAs, and 59 SAs were included in our study (total of SAs between 2013 and 2019 = 4,054). In the SAs, accelerometers to measure activity and/or sleep parameters (n = 31) were the most frequently used devices, followed by mobile applications (n = 6) and glucose monitoring devices (n = 6). Usually, these measures were proposed as secondary or exploratory endpoints (n = 32). The main recommendations of the CHMP were related to relevance of the (novel) outcome measure; validation; precision, accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity; compliance; sampling interval; and data handling and privacy.Conclusions: Although there was a trend toward an increased use over time, the use of RMTs in registration trials is still relatively rare. In the absence of formal European regulatory guidance on mHealth technologies, insight in the main recommendations of the CHMP may stimulate the use of novel RMTs in a regulatory context.

The tennis common content knowledge measure validation

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable common content knowledge (CCK) instrument for pre-service teachers who teach fundamental tennis in secondary schools. The instrument, called the tennis CCK test for pre-service teachers (CCK-Tennis), was administered to 117 undergraduate students who were enrolled in physical education (PE) teacher education programmes at three universities in the United States. Two tennis content experts developed the CCK-Tennis and five in-service teachers reviewed the test to establish content validity. A total of 10 pre-service teachers took the test for pilot testing. The data were analysed using Rasch statistics (Linacre, 2011; Rasch, 1980). The authors judged the unidimensionality of the CCK-Tennis using the unexplained variance in the first contrast (2.59) and the standardized residual contrast one plot (-0.4 to 0.4). These data provided evidence that the test is unidimensional and measures tennis CCK. The results of infit (0.8 to 1.2) and outfit (0.5 to 1.5) mean square residuals showed that the difficulty of the questions matches respondents’ knowledge levels. The item (5.32, Cronbach’s α = 0.97) and person (1.71, Cronbach’s α = 0.72) separation index and the Wright map showed that there are low to high knowledge levels of the respondents who took the test. The results illustrate that the CCK-Tennis is a robust, valid, and reliable tool that people can use in teacher education. Having valid and reliable measures for CCK is an essential step to improve teachers’ instructional effectiveness from the area of content knowledge.

What Is the Predictive Ability and Academic Impact of the Altmetrics Score and Social Media Attention?

Background: Citation rate and journal impact factor have traditionally been used to assess research impact; however, these may fail to represent impact beyond the sphere of academics. Given that social media is now used to disseminate research, alternative web-based metrics (altmetrics) were recently developed to better understand research impact on social media. However, the relationship between altmetrics and traditional bibliometrics in orthopaedic literature is poorly understood. Purpose: To (1) assess the extent that altmetrics correlate with traditional bibliometrics and (2) identify publication characteristics that predict greater altmetrics scores. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: Articles published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine ( AJSM), The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, Acta Orthopaedica, and Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy between January 2016 and December 2016 were analyzed. Among the extracted publication characteristics were journal, number of authors, geographic region of origin, highest degree of first author, study subject and design, sample size, conflicts of interest, and level of evidence; number of references, institutions, citations, tweets, Facebook mentions, and news mentions; and Altmetric Attention Score (AAS). Multivariate regressions were used to determine (1) publication characteristics predictive of AAS and social media attention (mentions on Twitter, Facebook, and the news) and (2) the relationship between AAS and citation rate. Results: A total of 496 published articles were included, with a mean AAS of 8.6 (SD, 31.7; range, 0-501) and a mean citation rate of 15.0 (SD, 16.1; range, 0-178). Articles in AJSM (β = 19.9; P < .001), publications from North America (β = 8.5; P = .033), and studies concerning measure validation/reliability (β = 25.5; P = .004) were independently associated with higher AAS. Greater AAS score significantly predicted a greater citation rate (β = 0.16; P < .0001). The citation rate was an independent predictor of greater social media attention on Twitter, Facebook, and the news (odds ratio range, 1.02-1.03; P < .05 all). Conclusion: AAS had a significant positive association with citation rates of articles in 5 high-impact orthopaedic journals. Articles in AJSM, studies concerning measure validation and reliability, and publications from North America were positively associated with greater AAS. A greater number of citations was consistently associated with publication attention received on social media platforms.

The Legislative Matching Game: Committee Matching and Effective Legislating in the States

I argue that the value of a particular set of committee assignments for a legislator is dependent on that legislator’s policy interests. By this, I mean that “good” assignments will match committee policy jurisdictions with member policy priorities. I develop this concept of committee-agenda matching and present a measure of this match for legislators in 12 state lower chambers. After some brief measure validation, I present a substantive application, demonstrating that this match poses serious consequences for individual legislator’s ability to shepherd their bills through the legislative process.