The hospitalized adolescent interaction scale: an instrument to measure patient behavior on an adolescent medicine ward.

The Hospitalized Adolescent Interaction Scale was developed to assess the behavior of adolescents on an adolescent unit. This 30-item checklist was utilized to measure the behavior of patients hospitalized on adolescent units in two hospitals. The type and level of behavior of the adolescents were similar at the two hospitals. Adolescents spent only a small percentage of their time interacting with each other (3-8%), while over half their time was spent in solitary activities (33-37%) or doing nothing at all (21-17%). In rank order, the four most frequent activities at both institutions were: (1) television on, (2) visitor in room, (3) patient watching TV, and (4) visitor and patient talking.