Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T19:03:29.449Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Validity and reliability of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales in psychiatric patients in the community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Martin Orrell ,
Paula Yard ,
Julia Handysides  and
Robert Schapira
Martin Orrell*
Affiliation:
University College, London
Paula Yard
Affiliation:
Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow, Essex
Julia Handysides
Affiliation:
Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow, Essex
Robert Schapira
Affiliation:
Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow, Essex
*
Dr Martin Orrell, Reader in Psychiatry of Ageing, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences. University College London Medical School, Wolfson Building, 48 Riding House Street, London WIN 8AA. Tel: 01279-827260; Fax: 01279-454018; e-mail: m.orrell@ucl.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

The Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) have been developed for assessing the effectiveness of mental health services.

Aims

To investigate the validity and reliability of the HoNOS in patients in contact with mental health services.

Method

Subjects (age range 19–64) came from day hospitals, acute in-patient units and out-patient clinics in general practice. We obtained the opinions of experienced professionals, advocacy groups and patient groups to evaluate consensual and content validity.

Results

One hundred patients were assessed using the package of rating scales. Interrater and test–retest reliability were good for some items and poor for others. The HoNOS had good criterion validity: acute in-patients had higher scores than day patients and out-patients. HoNOS also had good concurrent validity, correlating well with other scales. Comments suggested that the HoNOS was a useful and suitable scale for this population but psychotic symptoms and certain social factors were not sufficiently covered.

Conclusion

The HoNOS had good validity but variable reliability. It may be better than existing scales because of the wide range of areas which it covers.

Type
HoNOS Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 174 , Issue 5 , May 1999 , pp. 409 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Declaration of interest

Funded by Hertfordshire Health Agency.

References

American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn) (DSM-IV). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Black, N. (1990) Quality assurance of medical care. Journal of Public Health Medicine, 12, 97–104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Curtis, R. & Beevor, A. (1995) Health of the Nation Outcome Scales. In Measurement for Mental Health (ed. Wing, J. K.), Ch. 3, pp. 33–47. London: Gaskell.Google Scholar
Endicott, J., Spitzer, R. L., Fleiss, J. L. & Cohen, J. (1976) The Global Assessment Scale. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 766–771.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feinstein, A. R. & Cicchetti, D. V. (1990) High agreement but low kappa: I The problem of two paradoxes. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 43, 543–549.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. (1978) Manual of the General Health Questionnaire. Slough: NFER/Nelson.Google Scholar
Higginson, I. (1994) Quality of care and evaluating services. International Review of Psychiatry, 6, 5–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kazarian, S. S. & Joseph, L. W. (1994) A brief scale to help identify outpatients' level of need for community support services. Hospital & Community Psychiatry, 45, 935–937.Google Scholar
Overall, J. E. & Gorham, D. R. (1962) The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Psychological Reports, 10, 799–812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosser, R. M. (1985) A history of the development of health indices. In Measuring the Social Benefits of Medicine (ed. Smith, G. T.). London: Office of Health Economics.Google Scholar
Royal College of Psychiatrists Research Unit (1995a) Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (Version 4). London: Royal College of Psychiatrists.Google Scholar
Royal College of Psychiatrists Research Unit (1995b) Health of the Nation Outcome Scales, An Overview of their Development. London: Royal College of Psychiatrists.Google Scholar
Shaw, C. (1989) Medical Audit: A Hospital Handbook (2nd edn), pp. 1–53. London: King's Fund.Google Scholar
Ware, J. E. & Sherbourne, C. D. (1990) The MOS 36-item short form health survey (SF-36): Conceptual framework and item selection. Medical Care, 30, 473–483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wing, J. K., Beevor, A. S. & Curtis, R. H. (1998) Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS). Research and development. British Journal of Psychiatry, 172, 11–18.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Curtis, R. H. & Beevor, A. S. (1999) Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS): Glossary for HoNOS score sheet. British Journal of Psychiatry, 174, 432–434.Google Scholar
Wylces, T. & Sturt, E. (1986) The measurement of social behaviour in psychiatric patients: an assessment of the reliability and validity of the SBS schedule. British Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 1–11.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.