Simulating Computer Adaptive Testing With the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire

In a post hoc simulation study (N = 3,597 psychiatric outpatients), we investigated whether the efficiency of the 90-item Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ) could be improved for assessing clinical subjects with computerized adaptive testing (CAT). A CAT simulation was performed on each of the 3 MASQ subscales (Positive Affect, Negative Affect, and Somatic Anxiety). With the CAT simulation’s stopping rule set at a high level of measurement precision, the results showed that patients’ test administration can be shortened substantially; the mean decrease in items used for the subscales ranged from 56% up to 74%. Furthermore, the predictive utility of the CAT simulations was sufficient for all MASQ scales. The findings reveal that developing a MASQ CAT for clinical subjects is useful as it leads to more efficient measurement without compromising the reliability of the test outcomes.