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