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Informant Reports (informant + report)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	75%

Selected Abstracts

Validation analysis of informant's ratings of cognitive function in African Americans and Nigerians

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 7 2006
Jianzhao Shen
Abstract Objectives To examine informant validity using the Community Screening Interview for Dementia (CSI ,D') both cross-sectionally and longitudinally in two very different cultures and to explore the effects of informants and study participants' characteristics on the validity of informants' reports. Methods Elderly African Americans age 65 years and older residing in Indianapolis, USA and elderly Yoruba Nigerians age 65 years and older residing in Ibadan, Nigeria were assessed on cognitive functioning using the CSI ,D' at baseline (1992,1993) and five-year follow-up (1997,1998). At baseline, the informant validity in both samples was evaluated against participants' cognitive tests using Pearson correlation and regular regression models. At follow-up, informants ratings on cognitive decline were assessed against participants' cognitive decline scores from baseline to follow-up using biserial correlation and logistic regressions. Results At baseline, informants' reports on cognitive functioning significantly correlated with cognitive scores in both samples (Indianapolis:r,=,,0.43, p,<,0.001; Ibadan:r,=,,0.47, p,<,0.001). The participant,informant relationships significantly affected the informants' reports in the two samples with different patterns (p,=,0.005 for Indianapolis and p,<,0.001 for Ibadan) at a given level of cognitive functioning. African Americans spouses reported more cognitive problems, while siblings reported more problems for the Yoruba Nigerians. At follow-up, informants' ratings on cognitive decline significantly correlated with the cognitive decline scores (Indianapolis r,=,0.38, p,<,0.001; Ibadan r,=,0.32, p,<,0.001). The characteristics of study participants and informants had little impact on the informants' ratings on cognitive decline. Conclusions Informant reports are valid in assessing the cognitive functioning of study participants both cross-sectionally and longitudinally in two very different cultures, languages and environments. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Reliability of personality disorder diagnosis during depression: the contribution of collateral informant reports

ACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 6 2007
B. G. Case
Objective:, Research has found low concordance of personality disorder diagnoses made during depression versus after remission and made using patient versus collateral informants, but little is known about the reliability of personality disorder (PD) diagnoses made during depression using patient and collateral reports. Method:, A total of 168 patients were evaluated for PDs during depression and following response using patient and close informant reports. , coefficients of inter-informant and test,retest reliability were calculated. Results:, After depression response, the proportion diagnosed with cluster A and C PDs fell by both patient and close informant report, and overall inter-informant reliability declined. Overall test,retest reliability did not differ between patients and informants. Conclusion:, Collateral informants do not improve the reliability of PD diagnoses made during depressive episodes. [source]

Identifying functional impairment with scores from the repeatable battery for the assessment of neuropsychological status (RBANS)

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 5 2010
Valerie L. Hobson
Abstract Objective To examine the link between RBANS scores and functional impairment. Functional status was evaluated through informant report using the clinical dementia rating (CDR) scale. Methods Archival data were reviewed from records of 99 patients in a memory disorder clinic (MDC) research database. Consensus-based diagnoses were Alzheimer's disease (AD; n,=,48), mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n,=,48), AD with vascular components; (n,=,2) and dementia due to psychiatric conditions (n,=,1). Results The RBANS language index score was significantly related to CDR domain scores of community affairs (p,<,.01), home and hobbies (p,<,.01), personal care (p,<,.05), memory (p,<,0.01), and judgment (p,<,0.01). RBANS immediate memory index scores were significantly related to (p,<,0.05) the CDR Memory and judgment and problem solving domains. Based on these findings, follow-up regressions were conducted. Semantic fluency was significantly related to CDR memory (p,<,0.01), judgment (p,<,0.05), community affairs (p,<,0.05), home/hobbies (p,<,0.05), and personal care (p,<,0.05) functional domains. Picture naming was significantly related to the CDR personal care domain (p,<,0.05). List learning was significantly related to CDR memory functional domain (p,<,0.01) and judgment (p,<,0.05). Lastly, story memory was significantly related to the CDR judgment domain (p,<,0.05). Conclusions The RBANS may be an indicator of functional impairment as well as a neuropsychological testing tool. The use of the RBANS could reduce the amount of testing that is administered to the patient, or can provide a way to compare other measurements of functional impairment to assess accuracy of findings. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Reliability of personality disorder diagnosis during depression: the contribution of collateral informant reports

When infants grow up in multiperson relationship systems

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 4 2007
James P. Mchale
Despite prompts from the field of family therapy since its inception, contemporary infant mental health theory and practice remain firmly rooted in and guided by dyadic-based models. Over the past 10 years, a groundswell of new empirical studies of triadic and family group dynamics during infancy have substantiated that which family theory has contended for decades: looking beyond mother-infant or father-infant dyads reveals a myriad of critically important socialization influences and dynamics that are missed altogether when relying on informant reports or dyad-based interactions. Such family-level dynamics emerge within months after infants are born, show coherence through time, and influence the social and emotional adjustment of children as early as the toddler and preschool years. This report summarizes key findings from the past decade of empirical family studies, highlights several areas in need of further conceptual development and empirical study by those who work with infants and their families, and outlines important implications of this body of work for all practicing infant mental health professionals. [source]

Maximum likelihood estimation of bivariate logistic models for incomplete responses with indicators of ignorable and non-ignorable missingness

JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY: SERIES C (APPLIED STATISTICS), Issue 3 2002
Nicholas J. Horton
Summary. Missing observations are a common problem that complicate the analysis of clustered data. In the Connecticut child surveys of childhood psychopathology, it was possible to identify reasons why outcomes were not observed. Of note, some of these causes of missingness may be assumed to be ignorable, whereas others may be non-ignorable. We consider logistic regression models for incomplete bivariate binary outcomes and propose mixture models that permit estimation assuming that there are two distinct types of missingness mechanisms: one that is ignorable; the other non-ignorable. A feature of the mixture modelling approach is that additional analyses to assess the sensitivity to assumptions about the missingness are relatively straightforward to incorporate. The methods were developed for analysing data from the Connecticut child surveys, where there are missing informant reports of child psychopathology and different reasons for missingness can be distinguished. [source]