RESEARCH ARTICLE


Agreement on Web-based Diagnoses and Severity of Mental Health Problems in Norwegian Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services



Håkan Brøndbo 1, *, Børge Mathiassen 1, 2, Monica Martinussen 3, Einar Heiervang 4, Mads Eriksen 5, Siv Kvernmo 1, 2
1 Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Divisions of Child and Adolescent Health, University Hospital of North-Norway, Tromsø, P.O. Box 19, 9038 Tromsø, Norway
2 Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, 9037 Tromsø, Norway
3 Regional Knowledge Centre for Children and Youth Mental Health and Child Protection, University of Tromsø, 9037 Tromsø, Norway
4 Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, 0372 Oslo, Norway
5 Alta Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Finnmark Hospital Trust, P.O. Box 1294, 9505 Alta, Norway

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2012
Volume: 8
First Page: 16
Last Page: 21
Publisher ID: CPEMH-8-16
DOI: 10.2174/1745017901208010016

Article History:

Received Date: 21/10/2011
Revision Received Date: 24/1/2012
Acceptance Date: 28/1/2012
Electronic publication date: 22/3/2012
Collection year: 2012

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Creative Commons License
© Brøndbo et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Divisions of Child and Adolescent Health, University Hospital of North-Norway, Tromsø, P.O. Box 19, 9038 Tromsø, Norway; Tel: +47 77755701; Fax: +47 77755761; E-mail: hakan.brondbo@unn.no


Abstract

Objective:

This study examined the agreement between diagnoses and severity ratings assigned by clinicians using a structured web-based interview within a child and adolescent mental health outpatient setting.

Method:

Information on 100 youths was obtained from multiple informants through a web-based Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA). Based on this information, four experienced clinicians independently diagnosed (according to the International Classification of Diseases Revision 10) and rated the severity of mental health problems according to the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA) and the Children’s Global Assessment Scale (C-GAS).

Results:

Agreement for diagnosis was κ=0.69-0.82. Intra-class correlation for single measures was 0.78 for HoNOSCA and 0.74 for C-GAS, and 0.93 and 0.92, respectively for average measures.

Conclusions:

Agreement was good to excellent for all diagnostic categories. Agreement for severity was moderate, but improved to substantial when the average of the ratings given by all clinicians was considered. Therefore, we conclude that experienced clinicians can assign reliable diagnoses and assess severity based on DAWBA data collected online.

Keywords: Web-based, telepsychiatry, DAWBA, HoNOSCA, C-GAS.