Reliability of mental status instruments administered to nursing home residents.

Compared the reliability of 8 mental status instruments (e.g., the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire) administered to 36 nursing home elderly (mean age 84.86 yrs) referred for psychological assessment. Test–retest, split-half, and internal consistency methods were employed to determine the reliability of each instrument. Most of the instruments were found to have acceptable reliability using all 3 methods, and in general all the instruments were of equal value with regard to reliability. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)