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A community needs assessment: the care needs assessment pack for dementia (CarenapD)—its development, reliability and validity
Author(s) -
McWalter Gregor,
Toner Hugh,
McWalter Alison,
Eastwood Jenny,
Marshall Mary,
Turvey Tony
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1166(199801)13:1<16::aid-gps721>3.0.co;2-n
Subject(s) - dementia , reliability (semiconductor) , needs assessment , psychology , gerontology , psychometrics , test validity , validity , medicine , clinical psychology , sociology , disease , power (physics) , physics , pathology , quantum mechanics , social science
Objective . To develop and evaluate a multidisciplinary needs assessment tool for people with dementia living in the community and their carers. Design . The measure was developed through applying a theory of need, generating content, consultation with potential users and refinement and evaluation. Validity was established incrementally through the development process. Setting . The development and evaluation was conducted in a variety of settings, including multidisciplinary dementia community care teams, social work departments, day hospitals, and inpatient and residential care. Patients . The evaluation included community patients with a formal diagnosis of dementia ( N =34) and consultation with a multidisciplinary group of potential users ( N =23). The development process included inpatients with a formal diagnosis of dementia ( N =157) and consultation with potential users ( N =170) from a range of professions including both health and social care. Measures . Interrater reliability was assessed using the kappa statistic. Social validity was estimated using a measure developed for this purpose as part of the development process. Results . The evaluation of interrater reliability demonstrated that three‐quarters of assessors agreed on at least 85% of items in the CarenapD. The kappa statistic demonstrated that agreement for 76.2% of items in the CarenapD was ‘good’ or better (ie kappa>0.75), for 12.4% of items it was ‘fair’ or ‘moderate’ (ie kappa 0.35–0.60) and for the remaining 12 (11.4%) items for which kappa could not be calculated there was low intra‐item variance and high agreement (>90%). There was good evidence for social validity. Conclusions . The CarenapD is a reliable and valid multidisciplinary assessment of need for people with dementia living in the community and their carers. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.