Development of a Korean version of the behavior rating scale for dementia (BRSD-K)

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to develop a Korean version of the behavior rating scale for dementia (BRSD-K) for evaluating behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. METHODS: The BRSD-K was administered to the informants of 268 subjects with dementia. Internal, inter-rater and test-retest reliabilities were tested. To evaluate construct validity, exploratory factor analysis was performed. To evaluate concurrent validity, Pearson correlation coefficients between BRSD-K scores and the corresponding scores of the Korean version of the neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI-K) were calculated. RESULTS: BRSD-K demonstrated substantially high levels of reliabilities. Factor analysis identified seven factors, i.e. depressive symptoms, irritability/aggression, psychotic symptoms, behavioral dysregulations, sleep disturbance, inertia, and appetite. Correlations between BRSD-K and corresponding NPI-K scores were statistically significant (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: BRSD-K was found to be a reliable and valid instrument for evaluating BPSD.