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Reliability and Validity of a New Measure of Severity of Delirium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2005

Jane McCusker ,
Martin Cole ,
François Bellavance  and
François Primeau
Jane McCusker
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, St. Mary's Hospital and McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Martin Cole
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, St. Mary's Hospital and McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
François Bellavance
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, St. Mary's Hospital and McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
François Primeau
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, St. Mary's Hospital and McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
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Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of a new instrument, the Delirium Index (DI), to measure changes in the severity of the symptoms of delirium among patients previously diagnosed with delirium. Subjects were medical inpatients aged 65 and over diagnosed with delirium by the Confusion Assessment Method. Interrater reliability of the DI was .78 between research assistants (concordence coefficient) and was .88 between research assistants and geriatric psychiatrists. Criterion validity, assessed by the correlation between DI and Delirium Rating Scale scores (Spearman's correlation coefficient, r), was .84. Construct validity was assessed using correlations of the DI with two measures of current function for convergent validity (r = −.60, −.70) and two measures of function before admission for discriminant validity (r = .26, −.42). We conclude that the DI has acceptable levels of interrater reliability, criterion validity, and construct validity.

Type
Delirium
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , December 1998 , pp. 421 - 433
Copyright
© 1998 International Psychogeriatric Association

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