Validation of the French Version of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scale HoNOS-F)

Objective: This study reports the validation of the French version of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS-F), a questionnaire developed to measure health and social functioning of people with mental illness. Method: Once each statement was tested for readability, the scale was administered to 3 samples of people suffering from severe mental disorders to estimate its reliability, and validity. More specifically, tests were run to establish the internal consistency, the stability, and the interrater reliability of the HoNOS-F. Confirmative factor analyses and mean differences according to age, sex, and diagnosis were also conducted to evaluate respectively, construct- and criterion-related validity. Results: Coefficients obtained from the various tests show that the scale is reliable only when the total score is used. The confirmatory factor analyses indicate that the observed data do not fit the 2 proposed models, a unidimensional model and a 4-dimension model. However, the scale did show criterion-related validity. Conclusions: Results of the present study converge with those obtained on the original widely used English version. Therefore, we suggest that clinicians use the questionnaire by referring to each item separately and by considering such patient characteristics as age, sex, and diagnosis. We also suggest that researchers wishing to evaluate health and social functioning of persons with serious mental disorders use the total score. Caution is, however, warranted when interpreting the total score for a French-speaking population, because the factorial solution 1-dimension model did not prove to be satisfactory.