A systematic review and psychometric evaluation of self-report measures for hoarding disorder

Hoarding disorder (HD) affects approximately 2.5% of the general population, leads to significant distress and impairment, and is notoriously difficult to treat. The crux of developing effective treatments for HD is our ability to reliably and validly measure relevant constructs in HD to better understand its presentation and, subsequently, formulate appropriate interventions.

We identified measures specific to HD and evaluated their psychometric properties using rating criteria formulated by the Consensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) group.

The 17 included measures were developed to assess adult and pediatric hoarding severity, functional impairment, and maladaptive processes (e.g., material scrupulosity). The Saving Inventory-Revised, the most widely used measure of HD severity showed the strongest psychometric properties. However, psychometric investigations were generally of poor quality across all measures and results indicated unsatisfactory performance of measures.

The current review excluded non-English measures and ratings inherently contain some element of subjectivity despite use of predetermined criteria and two independent reviewers.

We suggest that clinical researchers continue to develop and modify measures used to conceptualize and, ultimately, improve treatment for HD.