The Hopkins Rehabilitation Engagement Rating Scale: development and psychometric properties.

Abstract

To conduct an initial investigation of the psychometric properties of the Hopkins Rehabilitation Engagement Rating Scale (HRERS), a 5-item, clinician-rated measure developed to quantify engagement in acute rehabilitation services. We used a cross-sectional design to conduct correlational and multivariate analyses to establish the measure's internal consistency, interrater reliability, construct validity, and criterion validity. Acute inpatient rehabilitation in 3 metropolitan hospitals. A total of 206 subjects with spinal cord injury, ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, amputation, or hip or knee replacement. Not applicable. The HRERS, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Brief Symptom Inventory, Levine's Denial of Illness Scale, Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique, and FIM instrument. The HRERS has good internal consistency (alpha=.91) and interrater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient, .73) and represents a unidimensional construct. It correlated negatively with symptoms of depression (r=-.24, P<.01), higher ratings of denial of illness (r=-.30, P<.001), and self-rated negative affect (r=-.23, P<.01), and correlated positively with self-rated positive affect (r=.36, P<.001) and level of functioning 3 months postdischarge (r=.22, P<.01). The HRERS is a valid and reliable measure of rehabilitation engagement that relates to intermediate-term functional outcomes.