A Self-Report Scale for Mental and Motor Slowness: Preliminary Results

A self-report slowness scale (SRSS) was developed to rate the severity of mental and motor slowness with items approximating general activities of daily life: housekeeping, personal care, recreation and leisure, cognitive skills, and reaction time. The scale was administered to 95 persons infected with HIV and 24 uninfected persons in the context of a comprehensive neurobehavioral evaluation. Analysis of internal consistency for the entire sample (Alpha = .9485) provided strong evidence of internal reliability, and strong evidence of stability was provided by SRSS scores taken 6 months apart, r(58) = .69, p < .001. Construct validity evidence was also strong: point biserial correlations of item-to-total scores for the entire sample were all above .77 (p < .001), and factor analysis for the HIV+ subjects yielded one factor accounting for 66.7% of the variance. Moderate evidence for criterion-related validity was illustrated through significant correlations of SRSS ratings with neuropsychological test...