Advantages and Disadvantages of Using MDS Data in Nursing Research

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review the advantages and disadvantages of using Minimum Data Set (MDS) data for nursing research, the psychometric characteristics of the MDS 2.0, and threats to the validity of its psychometric characteristics. The defined major advantages of the MDS are: (a) it provides continuous evaluation of residents' health and functional status, and (b) it enables facility evaluation at the nursing home level. The reviewed articles from the literature report that MDS 2.0 has moderate to moderate/high validity and reliability; however, the psychometric properties of MDS 2.0 are still controversial, mainly because the instrument has failed to identify depression in older nursing home residents.

Factors Associated With Daytime Sleep in Nursing Home Residents

“…It measures residents' functional, medical, cognitive, and psychosocial status (Shin & Scherer, 2009). The MDS has been widely used in out-come and secondary data analysis research due to its wide range of resident information and time efficiency in terms of data collection (Rantz & Connolly, 2004).…”

Dying in a Nursing Home: Treatable Symptom Burden and its Link to Modifiable Features of Work Context

“…Reliability of this tool may be influenced by the variety of care staff who complete each assessment and their varied training. 27 Some symptoms for individuals with dementia are likely to be underdetected, especially as death approaches, because those with advanced dementia experience severe communication difficulties. For example, the recorded prevalence of dyspnea and pain is significantly higher in the nondementia group, suggesting that individuals with dementia require higher levels of vigilance for symptoms.…”

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Prevalence, Characteristics, and Pharmacologic Treatment in Nursing Home Residents with Cognitive Impairment

“…21 The linking of these datasets allows investigators to ask questions that can be viewed as hypothesis generating for future studies rather than conclusive or causative.…”