BHI™ Test Helps Identify Roadblocks to Recovery for
Orthopedic Patients

This test has been replaced by the BHI™ 2 (Battery for Health Improvement 2) and BBHI™ 2 (Brief Battery for Health Improvement 2) tests.

September 27, 1999, MINNEAPOLIS—Studies show that physical, social and psychological factors may interfere with treatment for general medical and orthopedic conditions that may affect a patient's normal course of recovery. For that reason, physicians have turned to NCS and the BHI (Battery for Health Improvement) test to help provide objective information and practical treatment strategies to assist their patients.

Developed by Daniel Bruns, PsyD, DABPS, John Mark Disorbio, EdD, and Julia Copeland Disorbio, PT, the BHI test can provide an in-depth analysis of possible psychosocial explanations when patient complaints aren't consistent with objective findings. The BHI test is especially useful for assessing factors related to disability in worker's compensation or personal injury cases. It is also an extremely effective way to screen patients to help determine their presurgical readiness. Physicians working within a multidisciplinary treatment team use the BHI test to facilitate communication with psychologists, in addition to evaluating and monitoring the effectiveness of treatment and clinical outcomes.

Test Norms

The BHI test was normed on a large community sample and a large sample of physical rehabilitation patients. As a result, physicians are able to compare patients to both norm groups and use the average physical rehabilitation patient as a benchmark for interpretations and recommendations.

Test Features

The BHI test offers:

• Objective information that helps reduce treatment time, improve treatment planning and raise a patient's quality of life.



• Easy administration. The test only takes 25 to 40 minutes to complete.



• An easy-to-understand Patient Summary that provides in-depth analysis and results in laymen's terms, so medical practitioners can easily explain the results to patients.



• The 14 factors assessed include depression, anxiety and perseverance, as well as tendencies towards pain preoccupation and somatization.