The P15 - a multinational assessment battery for collecting data on health indicators relevant to adults with intellectual disabilities.
A 15-item health checklist gives BCBAs a quick, cross-country way to flag medical needs in adults with ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
A team built a short 15-item health checklist for adults with intellectual disabilities. They called it the P15. The goal was one tool that works in every EU country so data can be compared. Staff or family fill it out; it asks about pain, weight, exercise, and other basic health points.
What they found
The P15 felt doable to users and experts liked its face validity. In other words, the questions made sense and people could finish them. The authors say the tool is ready for bigger studies and fine-tuning.
How this fits with other research
Dind et al. (2022) also built a new ID tool, but for kids and self-awareness. Their good results show the field keeps moving from old long tests to short, targeted ones.
Hermans et al. (2012) and Rojahn et al. (2011) both checked older mood scales in adults with ID. They found decent reliability, yet some factorial hiccups. The P15 team learned from those bumps and kept their battery tiny to avoid the same fit problems.
Falcomata et al. (2012) collected health data with existing surveys. The P15 now offers a single package that could replace that patchwork approach in future large studies.
Why it matters
You now have a ready-made health screen that travels across borders and languages. Use it during intake, annual reviews, or program audits to spot medical issues early. Because it is only 15 items, staff are more likely to complete it and you can track trends over time without drowning in paperwork.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add the P15 to your intake packet and train staff to score it in under five minutes.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Health disparities between adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) and the general population have been well documented but, to date, no dedicated assessment battery for measuring health disparity has been available. This paper reports on the development and testing of a multinational assessment battery for collecting data on a range of health indicators relevant to adults with ID. METHODS: An assessment battery (the P15) was developed following piloting, and administered to samples of adults with ID, in 14 EU countries. Samples were neither random, nor representative of the countries from which they were drawn. However, within the local health administration areas selected in each country, efforts were made to ensure samples were broadly representative of the typical living circumstances, ages and ability levels of the administrative population of adults with ID. The total sample comprised 1269 adults with ID, of whom 49% were female. The mean age was 41 years (range 19 to 90). RESULTS: Overall, feasibility, internal consistency and face validity of the P15 was acceptable. CONCLUSIONS: With some refinement the P15 could be useful for collecting data on health indicators known to be particularly important for adults with ID. It is useable in a range of countries and has the potential to highlight health inequity for adults with ID at a national or local level. Larger scale epidemiological studies are needed to exploit the potential of the P15 to address health inequity in this group.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2010 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01322.x