title: Does the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 case rule apply in adult survivors of childhood cancer? Comparison with the Symptom Checklist-90.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Screening for psychological distress is an important tool for improving survivors' access to psychosocial care. The Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18) has been widely used to identify psychological distress in cancer survivors, but few studies have reported on its validity. This study evaluated validity of the BSI-18 by comparing it to the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90).
  
  
  METHODS
  Concordance of cases identified by the BSI-18 and SCL-90 was examined in a sample of 193 adult survivors of childhood cancer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Receiver operating characteristics analysis showed strong diagnostic utility of the BSI-18 (area under curve = 0.922). However, the standard BSI-18 case-rule demonstrated low sensitivity (45.2%) against the SCL-90. An alternative case-rule showed better results; sensitivity (87.10%), specificity (83.33%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The BSI-18 is a useful measure for evaluating distress in adult survivors of childhood cancers; however, the standard BSI-18 case-rule has not been validated for this population, and an alternative case rule should be considered.
authors.affiliation: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Merport
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Recklitis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D057189:Checklist / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D017741:Survivors; D055815:Young Adult