title: Is the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales appropriate for the assessment of symptom severity in patients with substance-related disorders?
abstract: The Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) is an internationally established clinician-rated instrument. The aim of the study was to assess the psychometric properties in inpatients with substance-related disorders. The HoNOS was applied in a multicenter, consecutive sample of 417 inpatients. Interrater reliability coefficients, confirmatory factor analysis, and regression tree analyses were calculated to assess the reliability and validity of the HoNOS. The factor validity of the HoNOS and its total score could not be confirmed. After training, all items of the HoNOS revealed sufficient values of interrater reliabilities. As the results of the regression tree analyses showed, the single items of the HoNOS were one of the most important predictor of service utilization. The HoNOS can be recommended for obtaining detailed ratings of the problems of inpatients with substance-related disorders as a clinical application in routine mental health care at present. Further studies should include comparisons of HoNOS and Addiction Severity Index.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, D-20246 Hamburg, Germany. sandreas@uke.uni-hamburg.de
authors.forename: Sylke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Andreas
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Harries-Hedder
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schwenk
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hausberg
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schulz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers / Q000379:methods; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult