The "carers' needs assessment for Schizophrenia": an instrument to assess the needs of relatives caring for schizophrenia patients.
OBJECTIVE
For the purpose of service planning, an instrument was developed for the systematic assessment of interventions needed by the caregivers of schizophrenia patients.


METHODS
The development of this instrument was based on in-depth interviews and focus groups. It consists of 18 areas describing common problems of schizophrenia caregivers. For each of these problem areas several possible interventions are offered. Concurrent validity, inter-rater and retest reliability were tested among 50 caregivers.


RESULTS
The kappa values for the inter-rater reliability are predominantly excellent (kappa > 0.75). The values for the retest reliability show a wide range between excellent (kappa > 0.75) and fair agreement (kappa 0.40-0.60). The significant correlations found between summary scores of this new instrument and several sub-scales of the Family Problem Questionnaire support the assumption that the concurrent validity is satisfactory.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that this instrument is both valid and reliable.
Wancata
Johannes
J
Dept. of Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. johannes.wancata@meduniwien.ac.at
Krautgartner
Monika
M
Berner
Julia
J
Scumaci
Sabrina
S
Freidl
Marion
M
Alexandrowicz
Rainer
R
Rittmannsberger
Hans
H
D017028:Caregivers; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000451:nursing*