The italian Version of the carer's need assessment for dementia (cna-d): psychometric properties and influence of patient/caregiver characterisitics on answer

Aims: For purpose of service planning for dementia, an Italian version was developed from an original German instrument and its psychometric characteristics were checked. Than, it was applied to detect which patient and/or of the carer 'characteristics influencing answers profiles. Methods: Two independent raters allowed to detect both inter-rater and rest-retest reliability, for content validity professionals and carers were required to rate the relevance of each problem area and intervention on a four point scale. Dementia patients and their carers were assessed to define levels of cognitive performance and disability, and levels of burden and care-network . These data were related to perceived needs. Results: The original psychometrics characteristic are preserved in the Italian version. The levels of patient' disability and carer' burden resulted to significantly influence CNAD total score. Conclusions: CNAD allows not only comparative study on services for dementia but also an improvement of the local process of allocation of resources and their management.