title: Identifying hopelessness in population research: a validation study of two brief measures of hopelessness.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hopelessness is an important construct in psychosocial epidemiology, but there is great pressure on the length of questionnaire measures in large-scale population and clinical studies. We examined the validity and test-retest reliability of two brief measures of hopelessness, an existing negatively worded two-item measure of hopelessness (Brief-H-Neg) and a positively worded version of the same instrument (Brief-H-Pos).
  
  
  METHODS
  Cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Control arm of the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening.
  
  
  METHODS
  A non-clinical research-based sample of 5000 postmenopausal women selected from 56 512 participants.
  
  
  METHODS
  Spearman's rank correlation of brief measures of hopelessness with the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS). Spearman's rank correlation with the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and change in mean score on repeat testing.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two short hopelessness measures, a negatively worded brief measure of hopelessness (Brief-H-Neg) and a positively worded brief measure of hopelessness (Brief-H-Pos), were administered by postal questionnaire to 5000 women together with the 20-item BHS and 20-item CES-D. The Brief-H-Neg and Brief-H-Pos were readministered to 500 women after a 2-week interval.
  
  
  RESULTS
  2413 postmenopausal women (mean age 68.9 years) completed the questionnaire. The Brief-H-Neg and Brief-H-Pos correlated 0.93 and 0.87 with the BHS after correction for attenuation and their association with the CES-D mirrored that seen with the BHS (Spearman's rank correlation 0.88 and 0.68, respectively). There was no change in mean scores on the two measures with repeat testing in the 433 women who completed them and test-retest reliability was good (intraclass correlations Brief-H-Neg 0.67 and Brief-H-Pos 0.72).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings provide support for the validity of the Brief-H-Neg and Brief-H-Pos. These brief measures are likely to be useful in large population studies assessing hopelessness.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  NCT00058032.
authors.affiliation: Department of Women's Cancer, UCL Institute for Women's Health and NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, London, UK.
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fraser
authors.affiliation: Department of Women's Cancer, UCL Institute for Women's Health and NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, London, UK.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Burnell
authors.affiliation: University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: Laura Currin
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Salter
authors.affiliation: Department of Women's Cancer, UCL Institute for Women's Health and NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, London, UK.
authors.forename: Evangelia-Ourania
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Fourkala
authors.affiliation: Department of Women's Cancer, UCL Institute for Women's Health and NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, London, UK.
authors.forename: Jatinderpal
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kalsi
authors.affiliation: Department of Women's Cancer, UCL Institute for Women's Health and NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, London, UK.
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.affiliation: Department of Women's Cancer, UCL Institute for Women's Health and NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, London, UK University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gessler
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine & Pharmacy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Yori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gidron
authors.affiliation: Free University of Brussels (VUB), Faculty of Medicine & Pharmacy, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Steptoe
authors.affiliation: Department of Women's Cancer, UCL Institute for Women's Health and NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, London, UK.
authors.forename: Usha
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Menon
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D065026:Hope / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D015995:Prevalence; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Epidemiology; Mental Health