Objective: The purpose of the present study was to provide the validity and reliability of the Overt Aggression Scale (OAS) as a tool that the health professionals in the psychiatric clinics or mental health centers can use easily in the evaluation and management of Turkish psychiatric patients’ aggression.
Materials and methods: The samples of the present study consisted of 27 adult patients who had 80 aggression episodes and were hospitalized in the psychiatric clinic of a university’s hospital. The tools used for data collection were the pre-interview form and the OAS developed by Yudofsky. The patient’s aggression episode was evaluated at same time and on different forms by two raters.
Results: The OAS was translated from English to Turkish in seven phases. Characteristics of patients whose aggression episodes were assessed include age >60 (33%) years, female (52%), unemployed (85%), with manic episodes of patients’ existence in 8–16 (54%) shifts, in sitting room (571%), and on staff’s visit time (29%). It was determined that the scale scores were no different statistically between two raters, and that inter-rater relationship was reliability (p<0.001). Each item of scale in its subscale had consistency, and internal consistency of scale by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was sufficient (0.76) in both raters. In the scale, the relationship between the sum of the weighted scores of aggressive behaviors and interventions was positive and had a high correlation (p<0.05, p<0.01, and p<0.001).
Conclusion: Reliability, validity, and practicability of the OAS were satisfactorily and sufficiently demonstrated to evaluate Turkish psychiatric patient’s aggression in the present study.
Cite this article as: Kutlu L, Aştı N. The Validity and Reliability Study of the Overt Aggression Scale in the Turkish Psychiatric Patient Group. Journal of Health Science and Profession 2019; 6(3): 513-26.