HoNOS-ABI: a reliable outcome measure of neuropsychiatric sequelae to brain injury?

AIMS AND METHOD The Health of the Nation Outcome Scale for Acquired Brain Injury (HoNOS-ABI) is a relatively new outcome measure designed to assess the neuropsychiatric sequelae of brain damage. This study investigated the interrater reliability of this scale. Fifty patients with traumatic brain injury receiving rehabilitation were each rated twice on the HoNOS-ABI, by two different raters. There were 24 raters in total. RESULTS Weighted kappa values ranged from 0.43 to 0.84 and intraclass correlation coefficients from 0.58 to 0.97 for the ten items assessed. This indicated that agreement was moderate to substantial for all items. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS The scales consistently measured the items of interest across different raters. This indicates that HoNOS-ABI is a reliable outcome measure when applied by different raters in routine clinical practice.