[Formula: see text] Reliable change in pediatric brain tumor: A preliminary investigation.
Children treated for brain tumor show evidence of declines in general intellectual abilities (i.e., IQ). Group-level data indicate subtle declines over time on average, but no study has utilized a clinical criterion to identify and describe a reliable change in survivors of pediatric brain tumor (PBT). In this study, we discuss the utility of reliable change index (RCI) methodology to supplement group-level analysis (e.g., repeated measures ANOVA). This pilot sample consisted of 22 children (M age = 10.47 years) treated for PBT who completed initial and follow-up assessments (M interval = 23.58 months). Cognitive data included composite scores from the WISC-IV. An RCI z-score was calculated for each participant on each composite score based on two different test-retest reliability coefficients. As a group, survivors of PBT did not demonstrate a statistically significant change from initial to follow-up on any WISC-IV composite score. When RCI was calculated based on reliability coefficients with shorter test-retest intervals provided by the test publisher, 77% of survivors demonstrated a reliable change in performance on at least one measure. The frequency of RCI decreases in working memory was significantly higher than expected. In contrast, only 32% of survivors showed reliable changes on at least one measure when RCI was based on a reliability coefficient derived from a clinical sample with a longer retest interval. This study demonstrates that highly divergent results may be obtained with RCI and the importance of the source of reliability estimates.
['Duda|Thomas A|TA|', 'Ris|M Douglas|MD|', 'Yeates|Keith Owen|KO|', 'Mahone|E Mark|EM|0000-0002-5022-1499', 'Haut|Jennifer S|JS|', 'Raghubar|Kimberly P|KP|']
D001932:Brain Neoplasms D002648:Child D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male
Pediatric brain tumor reliable change index WISC intelligence