What are Claim Evaluation Tools?
The Claim Evaluation Tools item bank contains multiple-choice questions that assess an individual’s understanding of and ability to apply Key Concepts that people need to use to assess treatment claims and to make informed health choices [Austvoll-Dahlgren 2015].
Who are the questions for?
The multiple-choice questions can be used to test pupil knowledge in:
- school and other teaching settings
- randomised trials evaluating outcomes of educational interventions
- cross-sectional studies to gauge ability in a population, and thus provide background information to help tailor interventions addressing people’s educational needs.
All the questions in the Claim Evaluation Tools item bank have been developed for children (from the age of 10) as well as for adults.
Flexible, open access use
Instead of a standard, fixed questionnaire, we have developed the Claim Evaluation Tools as a flexible battery of multiple-choice questions from which teachers, researchers and others can select relevant questions for a specific purpose. Each multiple-choice question is designed to address one Key Concept. This means that you can create your own test or questionnaire based on which Key Concepts you want to teach or measure.
The Claim Evaluation Tools item bank is open access and free for non-commercial use. If you are interested in trying out the multiple-choice questions, please see our manual that will help you to develop your own test or questionnaire in a few easy steps.
Development
We have developed the item bank based on extensive qualitative and quantitative feedback from methodological experts, health professionals, teachers and members of the public [Austvoll-Dahlgren 2016b].
We have validated the questions using Rasch analysis in several countries, including, China, Germany, Mexico, Norway, Uganda and Croatia (see Publications page).
For the test used in two IHC trials in Uganda [Nsangi 2017, Semakula 2017], we used 26 multiple-choice questions addressing the 12 concepts that the IHC primary school resources cover and the 9 concepts that the IHC podcast for their parents covers (13 concepts in total). Each Key Concept was evaluated by two questions.
The test also included questions that assess intended behaviours, self-efficacy, and attitudes. In addition, we included four questions that assess literacy, as a covariate in exploratory analyses in the trial of the primary school resources.
Passing scores
We used an absolute (criterion referenced) standard to set passing scores for the test – one for the 12 concepts covered by the IHC primary school resources and one for the nine concepts covered by the IHC podcast. We used a combination of Nedelsky’s and Angoff’s methods to determine the criteria [Davies 2017], which are cut-offs for passing scores. In addition, we determined a second cut-off for scores that indicate mastery of the concepts, using the same methods.
Translation of the questions
Multiple-choice questions in the Claim Evaluation Tools item bank are currently available in several languages, including: Chinese, English, German, Luganda, Norwegian, and Spanish.
For more information, please see
Manual for preparing a test or questionnaire based on the Claim Evaluation Tools item bank.
Contact us
Receive a test?
Contact us if you would like to receive a test that can be used to assess the ability of children to apply the 12 concepts covered in the primary school resources.
Contribute to translation or validation?
Also let us know if you would like to translate multiple-choice questions to other languages or contribute to the ongoing development and validation of evaluation tools.
Download “Intention to use” agreement.
Example protocol Rasch analysis 1
Example protocol Rasch analysis 2
Have feedback?
Lastly, please send us your feedback if you use the Claim evaluation tool resources.