BioPsychoSocial
Assessment Tools for the Elderly - Assessment Summary Sheet
Test: Rapid Disability Rating Scale (RDRS-2)
Year: 1982 (original version was created in 1967)
Domain: Biological,
Psychological
Assessment Tool Category: Physical Functioning/ADLs,
Mental Health
Variations/Translations: 1967 (original version) (Linn,
1967); French Translation version (Jenicek, Clerous, &
Lamoureux, 1979)
Setting: Clinical and community
Method of Delivery: health care practitioner or
caregiver.
Description: The 1967 version of the RDRS and its 1982
successor (RDRS-2) is used to portray to functional capacity and
mental status of elderly individuals with chronic conditions. The
two versions differ in that the 1967 version contained 16 items
while the RDRS-2 contained 18 items (three additional items
describing mobility, toileting, and adaptive tasks of living to
replace the one item on safety supervision that was dropped from
the RDRS). The RDRS-2 contains eight questions on activities of
daily living (ADL), three on sensory abilities, three on mental
capacities, and one question on dietary changes, continence,
confinement to bed and medication. As responses refers to the
assistance level that an individual requires, the RDRS-2 measures
handicap rather than impairment experienced by an elderly
individual.
Scoring/Interpretation: Rather than using self-reports,
the RDRS-2 requires the rater to observe the participant perform
the tasks of living. The questions are rated on four point
response scales. Each question carries the same weight and is
summed to provide an overall score that ranges from 18 to 72.
Higher scores indicate greater disability. Scores could be
combined to yield three subscores that correspond with the amount
of assistance required with ADLs, physical disabilities, and
psychosocial problems. No reference standards are currently
available. The authors have stated that typical scores for elderly
community residents with minimal disabilities averages between
21-22 while hospitalized elderly patients averaged at 32, and
those who transferred from hospitals to nursing homes rated 36
(Linn & Linn, 1982).
Time to Administer: 2 minutes after observation
(McDowell & Newell, 1996).
Availability: Found in Linn & Linn, (1982).
Software: None
Website: None
Quantitative/Qualitative: Quantitative
Validity (Quantitative): A three factor explanation
(activities of daily living, disability, and psychological
problems) was uncovered after conducting a factor analysis of 120
hospitalized patients. Multiple regression and discriminant
function analyses was conducted to predict mortality in 845 men
(mean age = 68), and found that 20%of the variance in mortality
was explained by the test. Correlations of 0.27 and 0.43 were
found between the RDRS-2 and a 13 items rating scale of impairment
of elderly patients in the community, and a six-point self-report
scale of health, respectively (McDowell & Newell, 1996).
Reliability (Quantitative): ): Item correlation
reliability ranged from 0.62 to 0.98, the three lowest
correlations were found amongst the questions on mental status.
Test-retest reliability was found to be between 0.58 and 0.96
(Linn & Linn, 1982).
References:
Jenicek, M., Clerous, R., Lamoureux, M. (1979). Principal
component analysis of four health indicators and construction of a
global health index in the aged. American Journal of
Epidemiology, 110,
343-349.
Linn, M.W., & Linn, B.S. (1982). The rapid disability
rating scale – 2. Journal of the American Geriatric
Society, 30,
378-382.
Linn, M.W. (1967). A rapid disability rating scale. JAGS,
15, 211-214.
McDowell, I. & Newell, C. (1996). Measuring Health: A
Guide to Rating Scales and Questionnaires. (2nd ed.). New
York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 82-84.
Comments: N/A
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