title: The Talbieh Brief Distress Inventory: a brief instrument to measure psychological distress among immigrants.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to develop and test the Talbieh Brief Distress Inventory (TBDI), a 24-item self-report questionnaire that measures psychological distress among immigrants. The TBDI combines items from the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Interview Demoralization Scale (PERI-D). It includes a global score and six scales (obsessiveness, hostility, sensitiveness, depression, anxiety, and paranoid ideation). A convenience sample of 966 recent immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union were asked to complete a Russian-language version of the BSI and PERI-D as part of a study on immigrants' psychological adjustment. The TBDI is a combination of 13 items from the BSI and 11 items from the PERI-D. Items for inclusion were based on results of a separate factor analysis for the BSI and PERI-D and removal of repetitive items. We compared the total score with the total PERI-D and BSI and developed gender-specific cutoff points of caseness for the TBDI by comparison to known PERI-D and BSI cutoff points. We also checked for reliability using Cronbach's alpha. The TBDI correlated highly with the PERI-D (r = .93) and with the BSI (r = .82). Reliability of the scales and the overall instrument ranged from Cronbach's alpha of .60 to .89. TBDI caseness cutoff points were in close agreement with the BSI and PERI-D as reflected by kappa scores that ranged from .66 to .79. The TBDI is a promising instrument for screening populations for psychological distress and symptomatology. It is available in English, Hebrew, and Russian.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Unit, Talbieh Mental Health Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ritsner
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rabinowitz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Slyuzberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D014586:USSR / Q000208:ethnology