Defining disability in psychosis: performance of the diagnostic interview for psychosis-disability module (DIP-DIS) in the Australian National Survey of Psychotic Disorders.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to use data from the Australian Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing to examine the psychometric properties of the Diagnostic Interview for Psychosis-Disability Module (DIP-DIS). The DIP-DIS is a semi-structured questionnaire specially designed to assess disability associated with psychotic disorders.


METHODS
The psychometric properties of the instrument were determined by examining its inter-rater reliability, internal structure, as well as its criterion and discriminant validities.


RESULTS
Analysis shows: (1) that it can be rated reliably by trained interviewers, (2) that the items are complementary but tap a number of different domains, (3) that four factors account for over 66% of the variance, and (4) that it is sensitive to differing clinical populations with expected differences in level of disability. Ratings on the DIP-DIS bore significant relationships with a criterion measure of quality of life.


CONCLUSIONS
The DIP-DIS has encouraging psychometric properties for cross-sectional assessment of disability and may be useful in future studies of disablement associated with psychosis. Future work should examine its sensitivity to change.
Gureje
O
O
Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Herrman
H
H
Harvey
C
C
Trauer
T
T
Jablensky
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001315:Australia; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006801:Humans; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires