Validation of 30- and 12-item versions of the Chinese Health Questionnaire (CHQ) in patients admitted for general health screening.
A study of the validity of the 30- and 12-item versions of the Chinese Health Questionnaire (CHQ) was carried out with a consecutive sample of 386 patients admitted during one year to a medical centre in Taiwan for a 3-day comprehensive general health screening. The Chinese version of the Clinical Interview Schedule was used to derive a criterion measure of minor psychiatric morbidity. The areas under the Relative Operating Characteristic curves of both short versions of the CHQ were equivalent (area = 0.85, S.D. = 0.02). The sensitivities of the CHQ-30 and CHQ-12 were found to be 76 and 78% respectively, while the specificity of both was 77%. The estimated prevalence of minor psychiatric morbidity in the sample was 37% (95% confidence intervals 32-41%). In contrast, physicians diagnosed 11% of these patients as having psychiatric disorders, and their sensitivity was 29%. Taken altogether, the above findings suggest that the CHQ-12 is as effective as and is more efficient than the CHQ-30 in this context, and could be used by physicians in similar settings to improve their identification of minor psychiatric disorders in Chinese patients.
Chong
M Y
MY
General Practice Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London.
Wilkinson
G
G
D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control; D012372:ROC Curve; D013624:Taiwan