Psychometric properties of the Loewenstein Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment-Second Edition in Taiwanese persons with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE

This study sought to determine the psychometric properties for the Loewenstein Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment-Second Edition (LOTCA-II) in a population of persons with schizophrenia.

METHOD

Sixty-four participants with schizophrenia were administered the LOTCA-II at baseline, and 43 of these were randomly selected to undertake four more standardized measures of cognitive and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) functions to test convergent validity. One week later, 48 randomly selected participants from the total sample were readministered the LOTCA-II to determine test-retest reliability.

RESULTS

Substantial ceiling effects existed in 96% of LOTCA-II items. Cronbach's alpha for all six sub-tests ranged from .20 to .91; the alpha for the global scale was .90. Intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from .49 to .89 for the subtests and .95 for the full LOTCA-II. Low to moderate correlations were found between LOTCA-II total score and scores on cognitive and IADL measures. No overall significant differences in subtest scores were found across participants differing in employment status.

CONCLUSION

LOTCA-II performance is best interpreted in the context of total score. Further revision of the test items is recommended for a more reliable and valid use of the LOTCA-II in persons with schizophrenia.