Aggressive behaviour risk assessment tool for long-term care (ABRAT-L): Validation study.

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Psychiatry
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Aggressive events pose challenges in long-term care settings.
• Accurate prediction of resident aggression is crucial for safety and care planning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the Aggressive Behaviour Risk Assessment Tool for Long-Term Care (ABRAT-L) for predicting aggressive events.
• To assess the tool's utility in identifying at-risk residents upon admission to long-term care facilities.

Main Methods:

• Prospective cohort study involving 615 newly admitted residents across 22 Canadian long-term care homes.
• The six-item ABRAT-L was administered within 24 hours of admission to assess aggression risk.
• Incident reports of aggressive events within 30 days of admission were collected and analyzed.

Main Results:

• Out of 615 residents, 47 (7.6%) experienced one or more aggressive events.
• Receiver operating characteristics analysis demonstrated good discriminant ability for ABRAT-L at a cut-off score of 4.
• The tool exhibited satisfactory sensitivity and specificity in predicting aggression.

Conclusions:

• The usefulness of ABRAT-L in identifying potentially aggressive residents at admission was confirmed.
• Validation supports the integration of ABRAT-L into routine admission assessments in long-term care.
• Adoption of ABRAT-L can facilitate proactive risk management strategies for resident safety.