title: Assessing disability in older patients with schizophrenia: results from the WHODAS-II.
abstract: The World Health Organization has recently published an instrument to evaluate disability, entitled the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule-Second Version (WHODAS-II). We sought to evaluate its reliability and validity in older patients with schizophrenia. We studied 54 outpatients with schizophrenia and 22 normal comparison subjects. Besides WHODAS-II, we used standardized rating scales to assess positive and negative symptoms, depressive symptoms, cognitive functioning, everyday functioning, and quality of well-being. There was high internal consistency in WHODAS-II item scores and significant test-retest reliability. Patients reported greater disability than normal comparison subjects. Among the patients, disability scores were significantly associated with severity of depressive symptoms and quality of well-being, but not with cognitive performance and everyday functioning. The findings offer strong evidence for reliability and some evidence for validity of the WHODAS-II in older patients with schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0603, USA.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McKibbin
authors.forename: Thomas L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Patterson
authors.forename: Dilip V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Jeste
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000145:classification; D000367:Age Factors; D040561:Assisted Living Facilities; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires