To develop an interview version of the HOME assessment tool and compare the interview version of the HOME with the home visit version.

Families whose child under 10 years of age attending the Mater CAMHS, with first attendance in the past two years were contacted. 100 of the 247 contacted agreed to participate and consented to a family visit. The study had prior ethics approval. A brief interview version of the HOME devised by substituting questions for the observer rated part of the HOME questionnaire was administered prior to the home-visit, where the home-based version of the HOME was performed. Both interviews were then compared and statistically analysed.

The mean score for the home visit HOME was 46.93 ± SD. The comparison of the telephone data with the home visit data suggested that there is a small significant difference between total score for the telephone and the home visit HOME score, with a difference of 0.96 - 3.20 (95% CI), when each of the assessments were scored out of 100. Bell- curves and T-Pairing scores of subscales and individual questions of both interviews suggest similarity.

These results suggest that an interview version of the HOME assessment can be administered in the clinic or by telephone.