Evaluating Goal Attainment Scaling for Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment or Dementia in Rehabilitation Settings

Objective: To examine the validity and acceptability of goal attainment scaling for people with mild cognitive impairment or dementia, and to compare the responsiveness of goal attainment scaling with other measures of rehabilitation outcome. Design: The Goal Attainment Scale and the Functional independence measure (FIM) were completed on admission and discharge. Agreement between participants’ and health professionals’ ratings of goal attainment was used to examine validity. Acceptability was measured using the Bland-Altman method, with a maximum allowed difference of +10 and −10. Responsiveness was measured using the Pearson r to assess the relationship between goal attainment change scores and FIM change scores. Setting: Subacute hospital. Participants: Older adults (N=21) with a diagnosis of cognitive impairment or dementia. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Goal Attainment Scale, Functional independence measure. Results: Agreement between the health professionals’ and participants’ ratings of goal attainment was considered acceptable. There was no statistically significant correlation between goal attainment and changes in FIM (p=.054). Conclusions: The findings suggest that people with mild cognitive impairment or dementia participating in rehabilitation programs can engage in goal setting using goal attainment scaling.