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
A. Hochrein et al., 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, Zeitschrift fur Gerontologie und Geriatrie, 29(3), 1996, pp. 216-222
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.