title: Development and validation of a Haitian Creole screening instrument for depression.
abstract: Developing mental health care capacity in postearthquake Haiti is hampered by the lack of assessments that include culturally bound idioms Haitians use when discussing emotional distress. The current paper describes a novel emic-etic approach to developing a depression screening for Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante. In Study 1 Haitian key informants were asked to classify symptoms and describe categories within a pool of symptoms of common mental disorders. Study 2 tested the symptom set that best approximated depression in a sample of depressed and not depressed Haitians in order to select items for the screening tool. The resulting 13-item instrument produced scores with high internal reliability that were sensitive to culturally informed diagnoses, and interpretations with construct and concurrent validity (vis-à-vis functional impairment). Discussion focuses on the appropriate use of this tool and integrating emic perspectives into developing psychological assessments globally. The screening tool is provided as an Appendix.
authors: Fordham University arasmussen@fordham.edu.
authors: Andrew
authors: A
authors: Rasmussen
authors: Zanmi Lasante.
authors: Eddy
authors: E
authors: Eustache
authors: Partners in HealthHarvard Medical School.
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Raviola
authors: Emory University.
authors: Bonnie
authors: B
authors: Kaiser
authors: Partners in HealthHarvard School of Public Health.
authors: David J
authors: DJ
authors: Grelotti
authors: New York University School of Medicine.
authors: Gary S
authors: GS
authors: Belkin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D055866:Earthquakes; D005008:Ethnopsychology / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006205:Haiti; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000592:standards*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Haiti; community health workers; depression; global mental health; measure development; screening