The effect of language on functional capacity assessment in middle-aged and older US Latinos with schizophrenia

Abstract

The U.S. Latino population is steadily increasing, prompting a need for cross-cultural outcome measures in schizophrenia research. This study examined the contribution of language to functional assessment in middle-aged Latino patients with schizophrenia by comparing 29 monolingual Spanish-speakers, 29 Latino English-speakers, and 29 non-Latino English-speakers who were matched on relevant demographic variables and who completed cognitive and functional assessments in their native language. There were no statistically significant differences between groups on the four everyday functioning variables (UCSD Performance-Based Skills Assessment [UPSA], Social Skills Performance Assessment [SSPA], Medication Management Ability Assessment [MMAA], and the Global Assessment of Functioning [GAF]). The results support the cross-linguistic and cross-cultural acceptability of these functional assessment instruments. It appears that demographic variables other than language (e.g., age, education) better explain differences in functional assessment among ethnically diverse subpopulations. Considering the influence of these other factors in addition to language on functional assessments will help ensure that measures can be appropriately interpreted among the diverse residents of the United States.

UCSD Performance-Based Skills Assessment (UPSA): validation of a Brazilian version in patients with schizophrenia

“…This study focused on the validation process of a translated and culturally adapted measure of Functional Capacity in Schizophrenia, the Brazilian version of the UCSD Performance-based Skills Assessment (UPSA-1-BR). Supported by existent evidences ( Bengoetxea et al, 2014 ) and based on our results, we believe that the adaptation process (language and culture) didn’t interfere with the original instrument’s essence.…”

“…UPSA and its brief version (UPSA-B) had already been validated in a number of western developed countries ( Heinrichs et al, 2006 , Harvey et al, 2009 , Helldin et al, 2012 , Garcia-Portilla et al, 2013 ) and also had been used to access a specific ethnicity ( Cardenas et al, 2008 , Bengoetxea et al, 2014 ) inside a multicultural country (USA). Recently, a Japanese version of the UPSA-B was validated ( Sumiyoshi et al, 2014 ), the first one in a non-western developed country.…”

Assessment of Psychiatric Symptomatology in Bilingual Psychotic Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Seven studies presented outcomes that were non-prespecified: three articles-corresponding to one study-reported linguistic analysis [25][26][27] and four did not report overall or particular scores for psychiatric symptoms [28][29][30][31]. Three studies presented inappropriate study designs, case reports [15,32,33], and two studies presented wrong interventions focusing on cross-cultural studies [34,35]. Finally, four studies were included in the meta-analysis [16,[36][37][38].…”

Assessing the Relationship between Performance on the University of California Performance Skills Assessment (UPSA) and Outcomes in Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review and Evidence Synthesis

“…Quantitative assessment of the correlation between the UPSA and the GAF was based on 11 pairs of estimates from nine studies, which reported the overall UPSA score, or enough information to derive it. Of these, six studies reported the UPSA [37, 40, 42, 43, 47, 60], and three studies reported the UPSA-B [35, 41, 45]. Baseline characteristics of the patient populations in these studies showed that the majority of studies included more males than females; two studies had samples with an average age < 30 years, while the rest of the studies had a mean age of ≥ 40 years.…”