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A rating scale to m easure anxiety in dementia sufferers was developed and evaluated in a sample of 51 inpatients and 32 day-hospital patients. Anxiety scores were not related to sex, age, accomm odation or DSM -IV diagnosis of the type of dem entia. However, both subjects with physical illnesses and subjects with insight into their m em ory problems had signi cantly higher anxiety scores. The kappa values for inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.51 to 1 and for test-retest reliability from 0.53 to 1, which indicates moderate to good reliability. The overall agreem ent on individual items ranged from 82 100% (inter-rater) and 84 100% (test-retest). The professionals working in the care of the elderly and carer groups felt that the scale was comprehensive and all the items in the scale were important, thereby con rm ing that it has good content validity. The scale signi cantly correlated with other anxiety scales and also with independent ratings both by a consultant psychiatrist and also nursing staff, indicating good concurrent validity. Anxiety scores were signi cantly higher in dementia patients who ful lled modi ed DSM -IV criteria for anxiety and clinical diagnosis of anxiety disorder. This showed evidence of good criterion validity. Factor analysis showed ve factors, including all items of the scale. Scores of 11 and above on the scale indicated signi cant clinical anxiety. Overall, the scale had good reliability and validity. It should be a useful clinical and research instrument for assessing anxiety in dementia sufferers.
Shankar et al. (Mon,) studied this question.