ABSTRACT
Detection of intellectual disability (ID) in the penitentiary system is important for the following reasons: (a) to provide assistance to people with ID in understanding their legal rights and court proceedings; (b) to facilitate rehabilitation programs tailored to ID patients, which improves the enhancement of their quality of life and reduces their risk of reoffending; and (c) to provide a reliable estimate of the risk of offence recidivism. It requires a short assessment instrument that provides a reliable estimation of a person's intellectual functioning at the earliest possible stage of this process. The aim of this systematic review is (a) to provide an overview of recent short assessment instruments that provide a full-scale IQ score in adult prison populations and (b) to achieve a quality measurement of the validation studies regarding these instruments to determine which tests are most feasible in this target population. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses Statement is used to ensure reliability. The Satz-Mögel, an item-reduction short form of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, shows the highest correlation with the golden standard and is described to be most reliable. Nevertheless, when it comes to applicability in prison populations, the shorter and less verbal Quick Test can be preferred over others. Without affecting these conclusions, major limitations emerge from the present systematic review, which give rise to several important recommendations for further research.
Subject(s)
Intelligence Tests , Prisoners/psychology , Humans , Intellectual DisabilityABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The relationship between social functioning and QOL in psychiatric patients has not been explicitly investigated before. AIMS: To investigate the relationship between social functioning and QOL in a population of psychiatric outpatients (N = 410) with a broad spectrum of psychiatric disorders. METHOD: Social functioning was assessed with the Groningen Social Behavior Questionnaire-100 (GSBQ-100) and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale. QOL was measured with the WHO Quality of Life Assessment Instrument (WHOQOL-100). RESULTS: The study population experienced a wide range of problems concerning all aspects of social functioning. The numbers of problems were significantly higher compared with healthy controls and (partly) also compared with a norm group of psychiatric outpatients. Almost all scales of the GSBQ-100 were negatively correlated with all QOL aspects, whereas the GAF score correlated positively with all QOL aspects. In general, participants with problems on aspects of social functioning had lower QOL scores than those without such problems, even after a correction for the presence of psychopathology according to DSM-IV classification. CONCLUSION: In addition to the presence of psychopathology, social functioning is significantly related to QOL. Therefore, it should be considered more systematically in psychiatric assessment, treatment and program evaluation.
Subject(s)
Community Mental Health Services , Mental Disorders/psychology , Quality of Life/psychology , Social Adjustment , Activities of Daily Living/psychology , Adult , Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , Female , Humans , Male , Mental Disorders/diagnosis , Mental Disorders/therapy , Middle Aged , Netherlands , Personality Assessment , Personality Inventory , Role , Self Care/psychology , Social Behavior , Social Environment , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Examinations of the role of demographic characteristics in quality of life (QOL) in psychiatric samples are not new. However, serious limitations of previous research have been that (1) QOL was not assessed according to current recommendations, (2) assessment of QOL was often hampered by a substantial overlap in content between symptoms and QOL measures, and (3) the majority of the study samples had quite specific characteristics hampering the generalizability of results, as a result of which clinical implications of the results remained unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate explicitly the relationships between demographics and QOL in a sample reflecting the general population of psychiatric outpatients, QOL being assessed in a comprehensive, culturally sensitive, and subjective way, paying attention to the relative importance of its various facets. The main hypothesis was that these relationships would be rather weak. METHOD: From a population of 533 adult Dutch psychiatric outpatients, 495 participants completed the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL)-Bref for assessing QOL. Furthermore, several demographic characteristics were recorded. RESULTS: Statistically significant correlations were found between partner relationship, habitual status, work, and sick leave and the WHOQOL-Bref domains social relationships and environment. Psychological health was associated to partner relationship, educational level, and sick leave. The total amount of QOL variance explained by demographics was rather low. CONCLUSION: Amongst factors determining QOL, demographic characteristics are relatively unimportant. Therefore, paying attention to demographics during psychiatric treatment will probably have little effect on improvement of QOL.
