Assessment of orientation: Relationship between informant report and direct measures

Although informant reports of everyday functioning are often used in dement ia assessments, the actual correspondence between such indirect reports of functioning and actual performance has nor been examined. Orientation resul ts on the Dementia Questionnaire for Mentally Retarded Persons were compare d to those obtained in direct assessment of orientation of 138 adults with mental retardation. Fair to good agreement was found between informant repo rt and direct assessment. However, for some orientation items, nonverbal Ia , cause of mental retardation, and age affected the level of agreement. Thu s, both informant report-and direct measures of orientation are necessary i n dementia assessments, and further work is needed on informant scale valid ation.