[HoNOS norms for SMI-patients in acute and long-term clinical care and in FACT care].

Abstract

Background: In the Netherlands the Health of the Nation Outcome Scale (HoNOS) has been used for over 20 years, but norms for the HoNOS have not been updated since 2004.

Aim: To establish metropolitan HoNOS norm scores for patients with a severe mental illness (SMI) in various types of care.

Method: Anonymized data from a large cohort (n = 7566) from the years 2012-2021 of patients with SMI in acute clinical care (n = 4309), long-term clinical care (n = 822) and in care at flexible assertive community treatment (FACT; n = 2435) were used to establish norms for the index (total) score as well as the scores for clinically meaningful and serious problem areas.

Results: There were significant differences in HoNOS scores between the three types of care: patients in acute clinical care had higher scores, long-term clinical care patients scored intermediate, and FACT patients had lower scores. Legal status did not influence the HoNOS score in a meaningful way. Norm tables with raw scores, normalised T-scores and percentile scores were created.

Conclusion: The new norms enable clinicians to estimate the severity of psychopathology and level of functioning in individual patients compared to appropriate reference groups.