Psychometric evaluation of a short observational tool for small-scale research projects in dementia

Dementia is a degenerating illness and the lack of a reliable measure of se lf-report in particular presents particular difficulties for research. Ofte n in the later stages of dementia behavioural measurement is the only tool available for the evaluation of treatment techniques. This paper describes and evaluates a short observational tool suitable for clinical assessment p urposes. The scale has been shown to have the potential for adequate inter- rater reliability, test retest reliability and convergent and divergent val idity if the study limitations reflecting statistical rather than ecologica l validity, and limitations of sample size are borne in mind. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.