title: Brief screening instrument of posttraumatic stress disorder for children and adolescents 7-15 years of age.
abstract: The objective of this paper is to develop a brief screening instrument of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for young victims of natural disasters. Data were derived from flood victims in 1998 and 1999 in Hunan, China. A representative population sample of 6,852 subjects 7-15 years of age was selected. Among them, 6,073 (88.6%) were interviewed. Multistage sampling was used to select the subjects and PTSD was ascertained with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: 4th Edition (DSM-IV). We randomly assigned 80% (4,851) of the study subjects to construct the screening instrument (construct model) and the remaining 20% (1,222) subjects to examine the model (validation model). Logistic regression analysis and receiver operating characteristics curves were utilized to select a subset of symptoms and cutoff point from the pre-structured questionnaires. A seven-symptom instrument for PTSD screening was selected. Scores of 3 or more on this instrument were employed to define positive cases of PTSD with a sensitivity of 96.9%, specificity 99.0%, positive predictive value (PPV) 82.6%, and negative predictive value (NPV) 99.8%. The brief screening instrument developed in this study is highly valid, reliable, and predictable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology & Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Xiangya Road 110, Changsha, Hunan 410078, PR China.
authors.forename: AiZhong
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hongzhuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Shuoqi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Tubao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhenqiu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Shi Wu
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Wen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology