Centre for Policy on Ageing



Psychometric characteristics of the Minimum Data Set II: validity
Author(s)	M Powell Lawton, Robin Casten, Patricia A Parmelee
Journal title	Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 46, no 6, June 1998
Pages	pp 736-744
Keywords	Health [elderly] ; Cognitive processes ; Patients [nursing homes] ; Evaluation ; United States of America.
Annotation	The federally mandated Minimum Data Set (MDS) is a 284-item instrument designed to assess the medical, psychological, and social characteristics of nursing home residents. This is the second report of a study which aimed to determine the structure, statistical reliability, and validity of the instrument. MDS domain scores (cognition, activities of daily living (ADL), time use, depression, and problem behaviours) were correlated with a variety of independently obtained measures of basic behavioural and mental health functions of 513 nursing home residents. Findings showed that the majority of the hypotheses were upheld, suggesting that the MDS is usable as a source of research data. However, the sizes of the validity coefficients were modest. Depression and problem behaviour were less well affirmed than cognition, ADL and time use. The study concluded that there is a clear need for improvement in training and probably in the form of MDS measurement in some areas. (AKM).
Accession Number	CPA-981005406 A
Classmark	CC: DA: LHB:LF: 4C: 7T
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