Does the HoNOS 65+ meet the criteria for a clinical outcome indicator for mental health services for older people?

✍ Scribed by Jon Spear; Sudarshan Chawla; Maria O'Reilly; Daniel Rock

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 61 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.592

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Background

A clinical indicator should demonstrate clinically meaningful change, be relevant, allow comparisons between services, be acceptable to clinicians, and have acceptable validity, reliability and sensitivity to change. The HoNOS 65+ has been suggested as a clinical outcome indicator. The sensitivity to change of the HoNOS 65+ is not known.

Methods

This is a prospective study using routine clinical data. A pilot cohort (n = 42) was used to measure the concurrent validity of the HoNOS 65+ with the Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS‐15) and Brief Agitation Rating Scale (BARS). The main cohort of 245 consecutive referrals to a community mental health service for older adults was used to assess sensitivity to change against the CIBIC+.

Results

The HoNOS 65+ was acceptable to case managers, most HoNOS 65+ items had excellent interrater reliability and the HoNOS 65+ had good concurrent validity. Changes in the HoNOS 65+ scores between assessment and discharge had a moderate, but significant correlation with CIBIC+ scores.

Conclusion

The HoNOS 65+ meets the criteria for a clinical outcome indicator for community mental health services for older people. The HoNOS 65+ is sensitive to change. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.