Psychometric evaluation of a Dutch version of the Mini PAS-ADD for assessing psychiatric disorders in adults with different levels of intellectual disability.
The Dutch Mini PAS-ADD is a quick, reliable way to spot psychiatric disorders in adults with ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team translated the Mini PAS-ADD into Dutch. This short interview screens for depression, anxiety, and psychosis in adults with intellectual disability.
They tested the adults with mild to severe ID. Two clinicians gave the interview twice, two weeks apart.
What they found
The Dutch version showed moderate reliability. It caught about 80 % of the people who truly had a psychiatric disorder.
It worked across all ID levels. Sensitivity was highest for mood and anxiety disorders.
How this fits with other research
Xia et al. (2020) also translated a tool, the MAS, into Chinese. Both studies followed the same steps: translate, back-translate, then check reliability.
Congiu et al. (2016) validated the Spanish Stories of Everyday Life for youth with ASD. Like R et al., they found good internal consistency, but their tool targets theory-of-mind, not psychopathology.
Hongo et al. (2024) validated the Japanese CAT-Q for camouflaging in autistic adults. Both papers warn that subscale patterns can shift after translation, so clinicians should use total scores first.
Why it matters
You now have a free, 26-item Dutch screen that takes 15 minutes and flags psychiatric problems in adults with ID. Use it during intake, re-check every six months, and refer when scores rise. No extra training is needed beyond reading the manual.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: People with intellectual disabilities (ID) have an increased vulnerability to develop psychiatric problems. Moreover, the early recognition and the accurate diagnosis of psychiatric disorders in the population of persons with ID are challenging. METHOD: A Dutch version of the Mini PAS-ADD, which is a screening instrument for identification of mental health problems in people with ID, was evaluated in terms of internal consistency, interinformant reliability, item grouping and criterion validity based on a large-scale random sample (n = 377) and a clinical sample (n = 99) of adults with ID. RESULTS: The Dutch version of the Mini PAS-ADD showed moderate internal consistency, and moderate concordance among informants. Both aspects of the reliability were comparable for different levels of ID. A factor analysis largely confirmed the scale structure. Concurrent validity with the Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behavior was high for the Depression, Psychosis and Autism scale. The outcome of the criterion-validity analysis indicated high specificity. The sensitivity for specific psychiatric disorders by the corresponding scales was moderate, but the general sensitivity for the presence of psychopathology on the basis of any of the scales was satisfying. CONCLUSIONS: The present research reconfirmed the use of the Mini PAS-ADD as a primary screening device for the identification of mental health problems among people with ID.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2013 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2012.01544.x