Validity and reliability of the Spanish version of the diagnostic assessment for the severely handicapped (DASH-II).
Spanish DASH-II is psychometrically sound—use it to document mental-health symptoms before and during psychotropic medication reviews.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team translated the DASH-II into Spanish. They wanted to know if the Spanish form still measures mental-health symptoms well in people with severe or profound intellectual disability.
Caregivers filled out the Spanish DASH-II for a group of adults. The researchers checked if answers stayed the same across raters and if the items hung together.
What they found
The Spanish DASH-II held up. Internal consistency was good and different raters agreed.
This means you can trust the Spanish form to flag anxiety, mood, and behavior problems before and during medication reviews.
How this fits with other research
Verdugo et al. (2010) did the same kind of Spanish-language check on the Supports Intensity Scale. Both papers show the translate-and-test recipe works for the ID population.
McLennan et al. (2008) and Madden et al. (2003) also found positive psychometrics for caregiver mood scales in ID. Vargas-Vargas et al. (2015) lines up with them, adding a Spanish option.
Mumbardó-Adam et al. (2018) later used the same recipe on a youth self-determination scale. Their 2018 study extends the 2015 DASH-II work into a new domain and adds fancy stats.
Why it matters
If you serve Spanish-speaking adults with severe ID, you now have a free, validated tool. Use the Spanish DASH-II at intake, before psychotropic changes, and at annual reviews. It gives you numbers to justify adding, keeping, or dropping meds.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The DASH-II scale is a specific instrument for measuring psychopathological symptoms in people with severe and profound intellectual disability (ID). The aim of the study is the validation of the Spanish version, evaluating its reliability and validity. At the same time we examine the prevalence of mental disorders in our sample. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Two reviewers independently passed the Spanish version of the DASH-II (DASH-II-S) to 83 users to establish inter-rater reliability. To assess inter-rater reliability or test-retest reliability, fifty participants were reassessed by the same rater within 7 days. RESULTS: DASH-II-S showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's α=0.879) and good reliability, both intra and inter-rater reliability. The prevalence of psychopathology in the sample is 94%, and the use of psychotropic drugs is also high, with 61.4% receiving one or more antipsychotics. CONCLUSIONS: DASH-II-S is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used for the assessment of psychopathology in people with ID. The translated version retains the psychometric properties of the original English version. Moreover, the high prevalence of mental disorders in this population may explain the widespread use of psychotropic drugs, but it forces us to continuous reassessment and justification.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2015 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.10.034