MyCommunication-Adults: Psychometric Properties of a New Generic Communicative Participation Measure for People With Communication Problems and Development of Short Forms

Purpose: A preliminary item bank of 133 items from MyCommunication-Adults, a patient-reported outcome measure focusing on communicative participation, underwent content validity testing to ensure its relevance, comprehensibility, and comprehensiveness. The present study aimed to assess the structural validity, construct validity, and reliability of MyCommunication-Adults and develop short forms for clinical use. Method: Adults with communication problems completed the full MyCommunication-Adults item bank, the Dutch Communicative Participation Item Bank (CPIB) short form (measuring communicative participation), and the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System v2.0 Short Form 8a – Ability to Participate in Social Roles and Activities (PROMIS-APS; measuring general participation). The psychometric properties of MyCommunication-Adults were assessed using confirmatory factor analysis, item response theory analyses, and Pearson correlations. Results: A total of 500 adults with communication problems participated. The final item bank was reduced to 42 items, which demonstrated adequate structural validity (sufficient unidimensionality, Comparative Fit Index = .992, Tucker–Lewis index = .991, root-mean-square error of approximation = .085, no violation of local dependence, and good item fit). Construct validity tests confirmed an expected high correlation (.85) between MyCommunication-Adults and the Dutch CPIB short form as well as a moderate correlation between MyCommunication-Adults and the PROMIS-APS (.57). Two short forms (of nine items for unemployed and 10 items for employed adults) were developed. Analyses indicated a high reliability level for the entire item bank and the two short forms (reliability > .90 over more than 2 SD s in the clinical range). Conclusions: The final 42-item MyCommunication-Adults item bank demonstrated sufficient psychometric properties in a Dutch sample of adults experiencing different communication problems and measures a distinct but related construct to participation. The short forms provide a reliable, valid, and efficient measure of communicative participation in clinical practice.