The CORE-OM in an older adult population: psychometric status, acceptability, and feasibility.
There is a need to extend and test the feasibility and acceptability of mental health outcome measures in the older population (i.e., aged 65-100). We present data on the CORE-OM (Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure) on a sample of 118 people aged 65-97 presenting for mental health treatment and 214 people aged 65-94 drawn from a non-clinical population. Results show the CORE-OM to be a reliable measure in both samples when the overall mean item is used but the reliability is not as high for the specific domains as psychometrically stable structures. The CORE-OM showed large overall differences between the non-clinical and clinical samples indicating that it is equally as sensitive to these differing populations across this older age band as with working-age adults. However, the norms for the clinical sample were consistently lower than the equivalent clinical norms for a working-age sample. These findings suggest that the collection and compilation of age-specific norms is crucial in ensuring that appropriately referenced norms are used rather than assuming that norms are generalizable across the whole adult life-span.
Barkham
M
M
Psychological Therapies Research Centre, University of Leeds, Leeds. m.barkham@leeds.ac.uk
Culverwell
A
A
Spindler
K
K
Twigg
E
E
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy; D008603:Mental Health; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results