title: INTERMED: a measure of biopsychosocial case complexity: one year stability in Multiple Sclerosis patients.
abstract: The 1-year temporal stability of the INTERMED in a sample of patients with relatively stable care needs, patients with established Multiple Sclerosis (MS) was analyzed. Seventy MS patients underwent an interview to assess the INTERMED by a trained nurse, and two examinations of disability, EDSS and GNDS by medical doctors. At the following appointment with the nurse, approximately 1 year later, a second INTERMED assessment was done. Spearman correlations and change scores between the INTERMED assessments were calculated. Correlations between the two assessments were considerable: 0.75 for the total score and 0.55-0.74 for the domain scores (all P <.05). Median change of all four INTERMED domain scores and total score were 0. Changes in INTERMED total scores tended to be associated with changes in EDSS scores over time (P = 0.09), but not with changes in GNDS scores (P = 0.67). Patients with INTERMED scores above 20 on at least one of the two assessments had longer disease duration (P < 0.01), were more frequently suffering from a chronic form of MS (P < 0.01), and had more disability on EDSS (P < 0.01) and GNDS (P < 0.01) assessments. In a sample of patients with an established diagnosis of MS, INTERMED scores remained fairly stable over the period of a year. Implementing the INTERMED in routine care of patients with chronic conditions may help the clinician to structure interdisciplinary care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, VU Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. p.de.jonge@med.rug.nl
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: de Jonge
authors.forename: Erwin L J
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Hoogervorst
authors.forename: Frits J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Huyse
authors.forename: Chris H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Polman
mesh_terms: D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D006801:Humans; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D009426:Netherlands; D015588:Observer Variation