• Henriëtte G van der Roest, Franka J M Meiland, Hein P J van Hout, Cees Jonker, and Rose-Marie Dröes.
• Department of Psychiatry/Alzheimer Center, EMGO Institute, VU University Medical Center/Stichting Buitenamstel Geestgronden, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
• Int Psychogeriatr. 2008 Dec 1; 20 (6): 1273-90.

BackgroundTailor-made care in dementia requires an individual needs assessment. The Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly (CANE) was developed to assess needs of older people with mental disorders. In this study the validity and reliability of the Dutch version of the CANE were studied among community-dwelling persons with dementia and their informal carers.MethodInterviews were carried out with 236 people with mild to severe dementia and 322 informal carers; 69 informal carers were interviewed twice. Construct and criterion validity and test-retest reliability of the CANE were studied using data for informal carers. Construct validity was also studied for CANE ratings of people with dementia.ResultsThe construct validity of the CANE was good among people with dementia and informal carers. Criterion validity could be studied for 76.9% of the CANE items, and all significant correlations were convergent. Test-retest reliability of the CANE varied from poor to very good and was best on domains where needs were explicit and problems well defined.ConclusionsUse of the Dutch version of the CANE among community-dwelling people with dementia and their carers is supported by the study results, with the study showing acceptable construct and criterion validity and test-retest reliability of the CANE.

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