Validation of a Measure of Physical Illness Burden at Autopsy: The Cumulative Illness Rating Scale

Abstract

Objective: To further validate an objective measure of physical illness burden, the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale (CIRS). Design: Survey with correlation of CIRS ratings made from physician interviews and review of medical records with postmortem ratings made independently at tissue autopsy. Subjects: Victims of completed suicide investigated by both psychological and tissue autopsy ( n = 72). Results: CIRS ratings made by examination of tissue at autopsy were highly predictive of analogous ratings based on historical data, accounting for 75% of the variance in CIRS scores. Taking autopsy findings as the gold standard of objective health assessment, historical ratings tend to underestimate physical illness at high levels of tissue pathology and to overestimate burden at lower levels. Conclusions: The CIRS score, when derived from all available sources of medical information, is a valid objective measure of physical illness burden and has broad applicability to research in geriatrics.

Keywords

MedicineAutopsyRating scaleGeriatricsMedical recordPhysical illnessGold standard (test)Scale (ratio)Physical therapyGerontologyPsychiatrySurgeryPathologyMental healthInternal medicinePsychology

Affiliated Institutions

University of Rochester US

Related Publications

A Diagnostic Interview

Jean Endicott

The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS) was developed to reduce information variance in both the descriptive and diagnostic evaluation of a subject. The SA...

1978 Archives of General Psychiatry 5704 citations

Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Gregory A. Roth , Degu Abate , Kalkidan Hassen Abate +97 more

2018 The Lancet 8305 citations

Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch: report of The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on planetary health

Sarah Whitmee , Andy Haines , Chris Beyrer +19 more

Earth's natural systems represent a growing threat to human health. And yet, global health has mainly improved as these changes have gathered pace. What is the explanation? As a...

2015 The Lancet 2632 citations

A Tool for Reviewers

Georges Bordage , Addeane S. Caelleigh

Peer review lies at the core of science and academic life. In one of its most pervasive forms, peer review for the scientific literature is the main mechanism that research jour...

2001 Academic Medicine 27 citations

Publication Info

Year: 1993
Type: article
Volume: 41
Issue: 1
Pages: 38-41
Citations: 355
Access: Closed

External Links

View on DOI.org

Social Impact

Altmetric

Validation of a Measure of Physical Illness Burden at Autopsy: The Cumulative Illness Rating Scale

PlumX Metrics

Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions

Citation Metrics

355

OpenAlex

Cite This

APA Style

                            
                                
                                    Yeates Conwell, 
                                
                                    Nicholas Forbes, 
                                
                                    Christopher Cox
                                
                                et al.
                            
                            (1993). 
                            Validation of a Measure of Physical Illness Burden at Autopsy: The Cumulative Illness Rating Scale. 
                            Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
                            , 41
                            (1)
                            , 38-41.
                            https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.1993.tb05945.x
                        

Identifiers

DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1993.tb05945.x