title: The psychometric validation of the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) in patients with bipolar disorder.
abstract: Bipolar disorder (BD) adversely affects daily activities/functioning. The Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) assesses disability in work/school activities, family relationships, and social functioning, and it evaluates the functional impact of psychiatric disorders. BD outpatients from 21 U.S. sites completed a battery of validated instruments (including the SDS) three times over 8-12 weeks. Instrument reliability (internal consistency, test-retest), validity (construct, convergent validity, known groups) and responsiveness were measured. There were missing data for the SDS in 2% of the 225 subjects with BD. One factor explained 82% of the variance. All SDS items had rotated factor loadings on the first factor >0.90, confirming the appropriateness of the SDS total score. Item-scale correlations surpassed 0.40. There was excellent internal consistency reliability for the SDS total score (Cronbach's alpha=0.89). Test-retest reliability was acceptable for the SDS total score (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.73). Correlations with other instruments demonstrate convergent and divergent validity. The SDS total and item scores significantly discriminated between (self-rated) overall health status, clinician-rated functional status, and clinician-rated depression, evidencing known group validity. The SDS demonstrated ability to detect change over time. The SDS is a valid, reliable measure of disability and is responsive to change over time when used in subjects with BD.
authors.affiliation: Mapi Values, Bollington, Cheshire, UK. Rob.Arbuckle@mapivalues.com
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Arbuckle
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Frye
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brecher
authors.forename: Björn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Paulsson
authors.forename: Kitty
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rajagopalan
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Palmer
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Degl' Innocenti
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors