Factor analysis of treatment outcomes from a UK specialist addiction service: relationship between the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire, Social Satisfaction Questionnaire and 10-item Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation.

Caroline Fairhurst,Tim J Croudace,Jan R Böhnke,Duncan Raistrick,Rhian Gabe,Gillian Tober

doi:10.1111/dar.12146

Abstract

Introduction and AimsTo examine the relationship between three outcome measures used by a specialist addiction service (UK): the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire (LDQ), the Social Satisfaction Questionnaire (SSQ) and the 10-item Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE-10).Design and MethodA clinical sample of 715 service user records was extracted from a specialist addiction service (2011) database. The LDQ (dependence), SSQ (social satisfaction) and CORE-10 (psychological distress) were routinely administered at the start of treatment and again between 3 and 12 months post-treatment. A mixed pre/post-treatment dataset of 526 service users was subjected to exploratory factor analysis. Parallel Analysis and the Hull method were used to suggest the most parsimonious factor solution.ResultsExploratory factor analysis with three factors accounted for 66.2% of the total variance but Parallel Analysis supported two factors as sufficient to account for observed correlations among items. In the two-factor solution, LDQ items and nine of the 10 CORE-10 items loaded on the first factor >0.41, and the SSQ items on factor 2 with loadings >0.63. A two dimensional summary appears sufficient and clinically meaningful.Discussion and ConclusionsAmong specialist addiction service users, social satisfaction appears to be a unique construct of addiction and is not the same as variation due to psychological distress or dependence. Our interpretation of the findings is that dependence is best thought of as a specific psychological condition subsumed under the construct psychological distress. [Fairhurst C, Böhnke JR, Gabe R, Croudace TJ, Tober G, Raistrick D. Factor analysis of treatment outcomes from a UK specialist addiction service: Relationship between the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire, Social Satisfaction Questionnaire and 10-item Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation. Drug Alcohol Rev 2014;33:643–650]

Highlights

Introduction and AimsTo examine the relationship between three outcome measures used by a specialist addiction service (UK): the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire (LDQ), the Social Satisfaction Questionnaire (SSQ) and the 10-item Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE-10)
This paper presents the results of a factor analysis to explore the relationship between the LDQ, CORE-10 and SSQ.The aim was to identify the latent factors that represent the domains measured by the three questionnaires to assess the extent to which the three scales are independent of each other, or can be understood in a smaller number of dimensions than the number of scales, without loss of information
We found that this resulted from: (i) fewer completely empty questionnaires at reassessment across each instrument perhaps from patients being more engaged and willing to answer the questionnaires; and (ii) fewer missing items per questionnaire for which at least one item was completed, which made it possible to provide more complete questionnaires

Summary

Introduction

To examine the relationship between three outcome measures used by a specialist addiction service (UK): the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire (LDQ), the Social Satisfaction Questionnaire (SSQ) and the 10-item Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE-10). The LDQ (dependence), SSQ (social satisfaction) and CORE-10 (psychological distress) were routinely administered at the start of treatment and again between 3 and 12 months post-treatment. A mixed pre/post-treatment dataset of 526 service users was subjected to exploratory factor analysis. Among specialist addiction service users, social satisfaction appears to be a unique construct of addiction and is not the same as variation due to psychological distress or dependence. Factor analysis of treatment outcomes from a UK specialist addiction service: Relationship between the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire, Social Satisfaction Questionnaire and 10-item Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation. Appropriate service user-based outcome measurement strategies are Received 23 December 2013; accepted for publication 31 March 2014

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