How was the IDEAL schedule developed and tested?

Abstract

This chapter provides information on how the International Schedule for the Integrated Assessment and Staging of Care for Dementia (IDEAL schedule) was developed and tested. It includes information on the three developmental stages of the IDEAL schedule: 1) a series of focus groups, which involved convening stakeholders who were engaged in the process of care for people with dementia to assess the need for a new dementia staging schedule, and to identify the ideal design, necessary items, and characteristics for such a staging schedule; 2) a pilot study with the draft schedule and using case histories to assess inter-rater reliability of assessments obtained using the schedule; and 3) a large-scale cross-country field study to test the schedule’s inter-rater reliability when used to assess patients in clinical practice. Information about the feasibility/acceptability and validity testing of the IDEAL schedule is also included in this chapter.