Background: The Wender-Reimherr adult attention deficit disorder scale (WRAADDS) is an internationally accepted attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) interview with an authorized German translation. The WRAADS not only assesses the symptoms of ADHD but also the severity of the symptoms using the Utah criteria. With the aim of economizing the diagnostic process the original English version of the Wender-Reimherr self-report questionnaire was translated into German (WR-SB) in order to evaluate the test psychometric properties.
Objectives: To explore the psychometric properties of the WR-SB within a classical test theory framework.
Material and methods: The psychometric properties of the WR-SB were determined in a population of 122 adult ADHD patients and 79 healthy controls.
Results: For the individual WR-SB subscales the results showed an adequate discriminatory power and a high internal consistency. The correlation between the WRAADS and the WR-SB was significant and the retest reliability was high.
Conclusion: The WR-SB is a brief, self-report instrument and an economical alternative to assess adult ADHD symptomatology using the Utah criteria. The results of this evaluation study showed the WR-SB to be a valid and reliable measurement for both clinical and research purposes.
Keywords: Attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity; Comparative study; Interview; Psychiatric status rating scales; Psychometrics.