ASSESSMENT OF COMPETENCE OF DEMENTED PATI ENTS IN SITUATIONS OF EVERYDAY LIFE WITH THE DAFS (DIRECT ASSESSMENT OF FUNCTIONAL STATUS) - OBJECTIVITY, TEMPORAL STABILITY AND VALIDITY OF A GERMAN VERSION

The DAFS (Direct Assessment of Functional Status) is a new test for th e assessment of competence of demented patients in situations of every day life. The present study assesses objectivity, temporal stability, concurrent and discriminative validity of a German version of the DAFS . Sixteen patients with a DSM-m-R-diagnosis of dementia of the Alzheim er's type, 8 of which with a mild (MMSE 18-25) and 8 with a moderate ( MMSE 12-17) dementia, and 8 control subjects without any symptoms of d ementia (MMSE 28-30), matched with the patient groups in age, gender a nd education, were assessed three times within 3 weeks with the DAFS a nd once with the NOSGER (an ADL rating scale). The DAFS showed high ob jectivity (correlation between two test administrators r = .97) and st ability (2 week retest reliability r = .98) and was able to discrimina te significantly between the study groups and with a strong effect siz e. Correlations with the total score and the IADL subscale score of th e NOSGER were high (r = .81 and r = .86, resp.), whereas correlations with the mood and the disturbing behavior subscale were much lower (bo th r = .54). This investigation could demonstrate that the DAFS is an objective, stable and valid test instrument. It has a high power to di scriminate between demented and non-demented subjects as well as betwe en various degrees of severity of illness. The test items are highly r elevant for everyday functioning and the test itself is a good and nec essary addition to the use of ADL or IADL rating scales.