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Objective: To assess the reliability, validity, and feasibility of a French version of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Elderly People (HoNOS65+)., Method: Twenty mental health professionals completed the scale for 126 elderly patients. We assessed interrater reliability in inpatient and outpatient settings, together with construct and discriminant validity, as well as concurrent validity compared with several widely used clinical instruments., Results: Excellent agreement among raters was observed in the outpatient subgroup (kappa range 0.77 to 1.00), whereas interrater reliability was modest in the inpatient subgroup (kappa values < 0.55). In cases where the patient-caregiver relationship lasted more than 1 month, the reliability of the scale improved. Construct validity analysis revealed no subscale structure. All items except "self-injury" displayed high concurrent validity (significant Spearman correlations with 8 other questionnaires). In terms of discriminant validity, the "cognitive impairment" (area under the curve [AUC] 0.91) and "depressive symptoms" (AUC 0.79) items showed high sensitivity and specificity values., Conclusion: Our results indicate that the French version of HoNOS65+ is a promising clinical assessment tool to evaluate mental disorders in the elderly in outpatient settings. We support its use in routine clinical practice, with the condition that a relatively long and individualized patient-caregiver relationship has been established.

A French version of the Canberra Interview for the Elderly (CIE) was developed. This instrument is designed for lay administration and, using a computer algorithm, produces diagnoses of dementia and depression according to ICD-10 and DSM-III-R criteria. The reliability of this French version was found to meet or exceed the English version in a test-retest design. Validity, established by comparison with diagnoses made by an experienced clinician, was also found to be acceptable. The CIE is thus an appropriate instrument for the epidemiological study of these disorders in French-speaking populations.