Elana Gotkin
THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2023 (HealthDay News) — A revised 39-item version of the Autism Symptom Questionnaire (ASDQ) is highly reliable, according to a study published online Jan. 11. Valid for assessing symptoms of autism. Developmental Medicine and Pediatric Neurology.
Dr. Thomas W. Frazier and colleagues at John Carroll University, University Heights, Ohio, describe the development and early psychometric assessment of ASDQ. A version of his first 33 items was developed and revised. The informant administered his revised 39-item version to her 1,467 children and adolescents, including 104 of her with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
The researchers found good reliability and construct validity on the first 33-item version of the ASDQ. Only four specific symptom factors were identified, probably due to insufficient item numbers. A common ASD factor and nine specific symptom factors were identified in the extended instrumental factor analysis, with good measurement invariance across demographic groups. We found good to excellent overall and conditional reliability. An exploratory analysis of the predictive validity of ASD versus typical developmental disorder diagnoses and other developmental disorder diagnoses found good accuracy in populations and in settings at risk.
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“The instrument not only provides identification information, but also has sufficient measurement accuracy to track individual differences from very low to very high symptom levels,” the authors wrote. “If the current results can be replicated, the ASDQ is very likely to be widely adopted in future research and clinical practice.”
Several authors also disclosed financial ties to biopharmaceutical companies that funded some of their research, including F. Hoffmann-La Roche and Bristol Myers Squibb.
