title: A study of the validity of the scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire in paralysed spinally injured out-patients.
abstract: This study validates the GHQ-28 on a sample of paralysed, spinally injured out-patients under the care of the West Midlands Spinal Injuries Unit. The validity of the GHQ-28 was 0.83 (95% confidence interval: 0.70 to 0.93) using the Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS) as the validating criterion. The effectiveness of the GHQ-28 as a screening instrument using CIS 11/12 as case criterion, and thus a prevalence rate of 0.18, was judged by relative operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The area under the ROC curve was 0.91 +/- 0.03. 'Optimum' discrimination occurred near GHQ 3/4 (0011 scoring scheme) giving a sensitivity of 0.81, a specificity of 0.82 and a misclassification rate of 18%.
authors.affiliation: West Midlands Spinal Injuries Unit, Shrewsbury.
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Griffiths
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Talbot
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010243:Paralysis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012803:Sick Role; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation