BioPsychoSocial Assessment Tools for the Elderly - Assessment Summary Sheet

Test: Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale (MDAS)

Year: 1997

Domain: Psychological

Assessment Tool Category: Delirium

Variations/Translations: The MDAS has been successfully translated and validated in German, Spanish, Japanese and French

Setting: Clinical

Method of Delivery: Survey Interview administered by clinician

Description: The Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale (MDAS) was designed with the intent that the instrument could be administered repeatedly within the same day, to allow for objective measurement of changes in delirium severity in response to medical changes or clinical interventions (Breitbart, 1997). Scale items assess disturbances in arousal and level of consciousness, as well as several areas of cognitive functioning (memory, attention, orientation, disturbances in thinking) and psychomotor activity.

Scoring/Interpretation: The MDAS is a ten-item, four-point (0-3) clinician-rated scale (possible range, 0-30) designed to quantify the severity of delirium in medically ill patients. Items included in the MDAS reflect the diagnostic criteria for delirium in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Four (DSM IV), as well as symptoms of delirium earlier or alternative classification systems (for example, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Three (DSM III), DSM III-Revised, The International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision (ICD-9) (Breitbart, 1997).

Time to Administer: Approximately 10 minutes to administer

Availability: Test available for download online (see websites)

Software: N/A

Website: http://symptomresearch.nih.gov/chapter_5/tools/mdas.htm or http://home.planet.nl/~izaks007/DreamHC/Download/MDAS.pdf

Quantitative/Qualitative: Quantitative

Validity (Quantitative): The MDAS has good internal consistency, with Cronbach α of .89 and Guttman split-half coefficient of 0.71 (Shyamsundar, 2009).

Reliability (Quantitative): Interrater agreement and test-retest reliability of MDAS were 0.92 (95% confidence interval, 0.81-0.96) and 0.93 (95% confidence interval, 0.83-0.97), respectively (Shyamsundar, 2009).

References:

Shyamsundar, G., Raghuthaman, G., Rajkumar, A., & Jacob, K. (2009). Validation of memorial delirium assessment scale. Journal of Critical Care, 24(4): 530-534.

Breitbart, W., Rosenfeld, B., Roth, A., Smith, M.J., Cohen, K., & Passik, S. (1997). The Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 13(3): 128-37.

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