Setting belongs in the measurement model
A remote and an in-person functional assessment can yield similar scores among completers while differing in who reaches completion. Comparability analyses should therefore treat completion as an outcome, not merely exclude incomplete observations before comparing scores. Report recruitment, task initiation, completion, missing items, assistance, technical interruption, and safety-related stopping by assessment setting. Then examine whether setting interacts with features that could affect task access or performance, such as sensory demands, device handling, available space, and the presence of another person. Score agreement addresses measurement among observed cases; differential missingness addresses whether the observed groups remain comparable. Without both analyses, an apparently small setting effect may apply only to participants able to complete either format.
