Utility of the Aggressive Behavior Risk Assessment Tool in long-term care homes

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the utility of the Aggressive Behavior Risk Assessment Tool (ABRAT) and the Aggressive Behavior Scale (ABS) for predicting aggressive incidents among newly-admitted and existing residents of two long-term care homes in Canada. Of 316 residents, 27 had at least one aggressive incident (8.5%). Receiver operating characteristics analysis showed that the area under the curve for the ABRAT was 0.86 (95% Confidence Interval [CI], 0.81–0.92) and that for the ABS was 0.75 (95% CI, 0.64–0.85). Sensitivity and specificity at the optimal cutoff score of 2 for the ABRAT were 96.3% and 65.4%, respectively, and those for the ABS at the optimal cutoff score of 3 were 59.3% and 80.6%, respectively. The ABRAT appears to be promising for use in long-term care homes for identifying potentially aggressive residents. However, further studies are needed to test the utility of the ABRAT among newly-admitted residents.