The assessment of burden on relatives of mentally in people: The German Version of the Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire (IEQ-EU)

Aims: The German Version of the Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire (IEQ-E U), developed for the assessment of burden on relatives of mentally ill peo ple will be presented. Also the results of the reliability analysis will be presented. Method: After translation and adaptation of the Dutch version o f the IEQ-EU into German, the instrument was tested in the study "Cost-effe ctiveness of psychiatric service systems". Results: The internal consistenc y was tested on a subsample of 138 relatives and the Test-Retest-Reliabilit y on a subsample of 37 relatives. The internal consistency (Cronbachs alpha ) is moderate or good and slightly lower in comparison with the other Europ ean versions. With the exception of one subscale the results for the intrac lass correlation coefficient are equal to the European versions. Conclusion s: The IEQ-EU is an instrument with moderate or good psychometric propertie s. It covers all important domains, is easy to understand and not time-cons uming.