Journal Article

Personality assessment in nursing home residents with mental and physical multimorbidity: two informant perspectives

Leontjevas, Ruslan, Koopmans, Raymond T. C. M., Voshaar, Richard C. Oude, van den Brink, Anne M. A., Gerritsen, Debby L., Suntjens, Ankie F.

2024

Overview

ABSTRACTObjectivesIn older patients with mental and physical multimorbidity (MPM), personality assessment is highly complex. Our aim was to examine personality traits in this population using the Hetero-Anamnestic Personality questionnaire (HAP), and to compare the premorbid perspective of patients’ relatives (HAP) with the present-time perspective of nursing staff (HAP-t). DesignCross-sectional. SettingDutch gerontopsychiatric nursing home (GP-NH) units. ParticipantsTotally, 142 GP-NH residents with MPM (excluding dementia). MeasurementsNH norm data of the HAP were used to identify clinically relevant premorbid traits. Linear mixed models estimated the differences between HAP and HAP-t trait scores (0–10). Agreement was quantified by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). All HAP-HAP-t analyses were corrected for response tendency (RT) scores (−10–10). Results78.4% of the patients had at least one premorbid maladaptive trait, and 62.2% had two or more. Most prevalent were: “disorderly” (30.3%), “unpredictable/impulsive” (29.1%) and “vulnerable” (27.3%) behavior. The RT of relatives appeared significantly more positive than that of nursing staff (+1.8, 95% CI 0.6–2.9, p = 0.002). After RT correction, the traits “vulnerable”, “perfectionist” and “unpredictable/impulsive” behavior scored higher on the HAP than HAP-t (respectively +1.2, 95% CI 0.6–1.7, p < 0.001; +2.1, 95% CI 1.3–2.8, p < 0.001; +0.6, 95% CI 0.1–1.1, p = 0.013), while “rigid” behavior scored lower (−0.7, 95% CI −1.3 to −0.03, p = 0.042). Adjusted ICCs ranged from 0.15 to 0.58. ConclusionsOur study shows high percentages of premorbid maladaptive personality traits, which calls for attention on personality assessment in MPM NH residents. Results also indicate that the HAP and HAP-t questionnaires should not be used interchangeably for this patient group in clinical practice.

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press,Elsevier Inc
• Subject: Age / Aged / Aged, 80 and over / Behavior / Clinical medicine / Comorbidity / Cross-Sectional Studies / Data collection / Dementia / Elder care / Evaluation / Family - psychology / Family physicians / Female / geriatric psychiatry / Homes for the Aged / Humans / Impulsivity / long-term care / Male / Medical history / Mental disorders / Mental Disorders - epidemiology / Mental Disorders - psychology / mental-physical multimorbidity / Multimorbidity / Netherlands - epidemiology / nursing home / Nursing Homes / Older people / Original Research Article / Patients / Perfectionism / Personality / personality assessment / Personality Assessment - statistics & numerical data / Personality tests / Personality traits / Physicians / Premorbid / Questionnaires / Residents / Surveys and Questionnaires / Vulnerability