The Checklist of Unit Behaviours (CUB): Validation within a Canadian outpatient day hospital programme.

Abstract

Introduction We evaluated the Checklist of Unit Behaviours (CUBs) questionnaire in a novel mental health setting: a day hospital within a large acute care general hospital. No empirical evidence exists, as of yet, to look at the validity of this measure in this type of a treatment setting. The CUB measures two factors, avoidance or approach, of the patients' engagement with the treatment milieu within the previous 24hr. Aim A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to validate the CUB's original two factor structure in an outpatient day programme. Methods Psychiatric outpatients (n=163) completed the CUB daily while participating in a day hospital programme in Toronto, Canada. Results A CFA was used to confirm the CUB factors but resulted in a poor fitting model for our sample, χ2 (103)=278.59, p<.001, CFI=0.80, RMSEA=0.10, SRMR=0.10. Questions 5, 8 and 10 had higher loadings on a third factor revealed through exploratory factor analysis. We believe this factor, "Group Engagement," reflects the construct of group-related issues. Discussion The CUB was a practical and useful tool in our psychiatric day hospital setting at a large acute care general hospital. Implications for practice Our analysis identified group engagement, a critical variable in day programmes, as patients have autonomy regarding staying or leaving the programme.