Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly (CANE) - Development, validity and reliability

Background There exists no instrument specifically designed to measure comprehensively the needs of older people with mental disorders. Aim To develop such an instrument which would take account of patients', staff and carers' views on needs. Method Following an extensive development process, the assessment instrument was subjected to a test-retest and interrater reliability study, while aspects of validity were addressed both during development and with data provided by sites in the UK, Sweden and the USA. Results The Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly (CANE) comprises 24 items (plus two items for carer needs), and records staff, carer and patient views. It has good content, construct and consensual validity. It also demonstrates appropriate criterion validity. Reliability is generally very high: kappa > 0.85 for all staff ratings of interrater reliability. Correlations of interrater and test-retest reliability of total numbers of needs identified by staff were 0.99 and 0.93, respectively. Conclusions The psychometric properties of the CANE seem to be highly acceptable. It was easily used by a wide range of professionals without formal training. Declaration of interest This study was funded by a grant from the North Thames National Health Service Executive.