Factor analysis of the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation – Outcome Measures (CORE-OM) in a Kenyan sample

• Main Authors: Fredrik Falkenström, Manasi Kumar, Aiysha Zahid, Mary Kuria, Caleb Othieno
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2018-10-01
• Series: BMC Psychology
• Subjects: Psychological assessment; Outcome measurement; Psychotherapy; Factor analysis; Psychological distress
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40359-018-0260-1

Abstract Background There is no generic psychotherapy outcome measure validated for Kenyan populations. The objective of this study was to test the acceptability and factor structure of the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation – Outcome Measure in patients attending psychiatric clinics at two state-owned hospitals in Nairobi. Methods Three hundred and forty-five patients filled out the CORE-OM after their initial therapy session. Confirmatory and Exploratory Factor Analysis (CFA/EFA) were used to study the factor structure of the CORE-OM. Results The English version of the CORE-OM seemed acceptable and understandable to psychiatric patients seeking treatment at the state-owned hospitals in Nairobi. Factor analyses showed that a model with a general distress factor, a risk factor, and a method factor for positively framed items fit the data best according to both CFA and EFA analysis. Coefficient Omega Hierarchical showed that the general distress factor was reliably measured even if differential responding to positively framed items was regarded as error variance. Conclusions The English language version of the CORE-OM can be used with psychiatric patients attending psychiatric treatment in Nairobi. The factor structure was more or less the same as has been shown in previous studies. The most important limitation is the relatively small sample size.