用机器学习从77项自闭症量表中筛选出16项核心题项,兼顾评估精度与效率。
A Machine Learning-Based Framework to Shorten the Questionnaire for Assessing Autism Intervention
- 基于特征选择与交叉验证,筛选出最能反映治疗进展的题项。
- 仅用16题即可覆盖全量表子域,纵向追踪相关性保持高位。
- 可推广至其他心理评估工具,适合临床频繁监测场景。
自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)患者照护者常觉得77项的《自闭症治疗评估量表》(ATEC)负担过重,限制了其在日常监测中的使用。本研究提出一种通用的机器学习框架,在保持评估准确性的前提下缩短问卷长度。基于60名接受治疗的自闭症儿童的纵向ATEC数据,采用特征选择与交叉验证技术,针对两类目标优化题项:纵向治疗追踪与单次严重程度评估。对于治疗进展监测,框架识别出16项(原量表21%)题项,仍能保持总分变化的强相关性并覆盖全部子域;同时生成1-7项的小型子集以实现快速近似评估。对于单次严重程度判断,仅用13项(原量表17%)即达到超过80%的分类准确率。该方法基于子集优化、模型可解释性与统计严谨性,不仅适用于ATEC,也可广泛应用于其他高维心理测量工具。该框架有望实现更易访问、频繁且可扩展的评估,为神经发育及精神健康领域的AI辅助干预提供数据驱动方案。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Caregivers of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often find the 77-item Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) burdensome, limiting its use for routine monitoring. This study introduces a generalizable machine learning framework that seeks to shorten assessments while maintaining evaluative accuracy. Using longitudinal ATEC data from 60 autistic children receiving therapy, we applied feature selection and cross-validation techniques to identify the most predictive items across two assessment goals: longitudinal therapy tracking and point-in-time severity estimation. For progress monitoring, the framework identified 16 items (21% of the original questionnaire) that retained strong correlation with total score change and full subdomain coverage. We also generated smaller subsets (1-7 items) for efficient approximations. For point-in-time severity assessment, our model achieved over 80% classification accuracy using just 13 items (17% of the original set). While demonstrated on ATEC, the methodology-based on subset optimization, model interpretability, and statistical rigor-is broadly applicable to other high-dimensional psychometric tools. The resulting framework could potentially enable more accessible, frequent, and scalable assessments and offer a data-driven approach for AI-supported interventions across neurodevelopmental and psychiatric contexts.
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