The Homeless Supplement to the Diagnostic Interview Schedule: test‐retest analyses

Abstract

This study sought to extend previous work on reliability of self-reported residential history in a homeless population with high rates of drug abuse. The latest version of the Homeless Supplement to the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS/HS) was used to achieve reliability on homelessness experience, use of shelters, transience, and recent residential patterns. Homeless study volunteers were recruited for a test-retest study from a drop-in day centre for mentally ill homeless people (N = 25) and a substance abuse day programme (N = 30). They were administered the instrument approximately one to two days apart. Kappa and intraclass correlation analyses were performed to assess reliability. Overall, the reliabilities of most variables were acceptable, ranging from fair to excellent. Six items were reconstructed to achieve reliability and two were dropped. Substance dependence and adult antisocial behaviour patterns did not affect reliability on most items. This study has developed a reliable self report instrument for measuring residential history that can be used with homeless and drug abusing populations. Replication is needed in larger, more representative samples and comparison of reliability with other psychiatric and cognitive characteristics.

A Prospective Study of the Associations Among Housing Status and Costs of Services in a Homeless Population

“…At baseline, participants completed structured interviews including sociodemographic sections of the National Comorbidity Survey interview (12), the substance abuse sections of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview substance abuse module for DSM-III-R (13), the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for DSM-IV (14), and the homeless supplement to the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (15). These interviews elicited detailed lifetime history and recency of symptoms and disorders, substance use patterns, and amount and types of services used during the previous year.…”

Deriving costs of service use among an urban homeless population

“…Those who had spent the last 14 days in inexpensive transient lodging (e.g., “flophouses”) were included if they had been there for more than 30 days. Individuals who had stayed in a public shelter or unsheltered location during the last 14 days were also included but only if they had stayed less than half of those days temporarily with friends or relatives or in temporary single-room-occupancy facilities (North, et al, 2004). This project was approved in advance by the Institutional Review Board of Washington University School of Medicine.…”

Mobile Phone Technology: A New Paradigm for the Prevention, Treatment, and Research of the Non-sheltered “Street” Homeless?

“…The DIS/HS is a structured interview, collecting data on the longitudinal course of homelessness, precipitants of homelessness, shelter use history, transience, and recent residential history. 13 Technology use information was gathered with an instrument created for this investigation. Data collected during this interview segment included whether participants have a mobile phone, how and with whom they communicate using their mobile phone, and the general content of their communications.…”

“…13,15,16 The psychometric properties of the technology use module have not been examined. This investigation relies primarily on data yielded from the technology use module, supplemented with the addition of descriptive characteristics from the DIS/HS, the ASI, and the demographic module.…”