[Development of behavior rating scale for the elderly].

The purpose of this study was to develop a behavior rating scale to measure adaptation of the elderly using care staff as evaluators and to examine the reliability and validity of the scale. The behavior rating scale consists of 51 items and 5 subscales to measure areas of ADL, activity, interpersonal relationships, dementia syndromes, and socially irritating behavior. The scale was administered to 280 elderly residing in 4 nursing homes. Each reliability index, including internal consistency, test-retest, and inter-rater agreement was satisfactory. Validity was examined by relating total score or each subscale score to 19 external variables including physical condition, state of daily living, cognitive ability and personality. The correlations between external variables and the scale scores indicated that the behavior rating scale was valid.