Selection of questions to short-form versions of original psychometric instruments in MoBa

Abstract

Original psychometric instruments are usually too lengthy and space-consuming to be suitable for general population based health studies. Usually, however, they can be abbreviated without losing more measurement precision than what can be accepted in such studies. Here we demonstrate that short-form versions of three instruments which are part of the MoBa study, and which include from one third to half the items in the original versions, correlate from 0.90 to 0.96 with the original version. This means that the short-form versions measure approximately the same characteristics as do the original instruments, and that they can safely be used for research purposes in MoBa.