Adaptation and Validation of the Instrument Treatment Outcomes Profile to the Chilean Population

• The need for easily applicable tools that can measure treatment results is growing.
• We adapted and validated the treatment outcomes profile (TOP) for the Chilean context.
• Acceptable psychometric properties were found for most items.
• The Chilean TOP is a valid tool to monitor treatment outcomes for substance abuse.
• Further analyses are needed for items with low prevalence (sedative use and crime).

This study aims to psychometrically validate the Chilean version of the treatment outcomes profile (TOP), an instrument that can be used by treatment centers to monitor the results of drug and alcohol treatments. Specifically, this study is interested in evaluating the inter-rater reliability, concurrent validity, change sensitivity and discriminant and construct validity of this instrument. The TOP was modified to reflect the Chilean context and then applied in three successive stages: an initial application at the beginning of treatment, a retest after 1 week, and a follow up after a month. The sample was composed of 411 users of different types of drugs who were in treatment centers in the three largest regions of the country. The TOP reliability was greater than .75 for most items. Regarding concurrent validity, all the coefficients were in the expected direction and statistically significant. Change over time, as measured by Cohen's d statistic and the Reliable Change Index, was significant for most items. Users in treatment for less than 3 months showed higher alcohol consumption (odds ratio [OR] = 1.07; 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.01–1.13), poorer psychological health (OR = 0.94; 95% CI: 0.87–1.00), fewer days worked (0.56; 0.95–0.99) and poorer housing conditions (OR = 2.76; 95% CI: 1.22–6.23) than did their counterparts who had more than 3 months of treatment. Researchers extracted six components with eigenvalues greater than one, accounting for 69.0% of the total variance. In general, the Chilean TOP is a reliable and valid mechanism to monitor outcomes of people treated for problems with drug and alcohol abuse in Chile, but further validation work is required in some dimensions.