The Spanish versions of the Barthel index (BI) and the Katz index (KI) of activities of daily living (ADL): A structured review

In this article, the evidence relating to the appropriateness to the target population, practicality and psychometric properties of the BI and the KI of ADL on samples of Spanish old people has been evaluated. To obtain the original documents electronic searches were carried out in Spanish databases and in international databases, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, CINAHL and EMBASE, as well as manual searches and references searches. Twenty articles met the inclusion criteria. The results show a large number of versions, for the two instruments, with weak processes of transcultural adaptation, without standards for its administration, nor for its interpretability. The most evaluated point of reliability was the interrater reproducibility. The evidence about predictive validity is extensive, but the evidence about concurrent validity and responsiveness is very scarce. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.