On somatic symptoms measurement: the scale for assessment of somatic symptoms revisited.
BACKGROUND
Scale for assessment of somatic symptoms (SASS) has been widely used for assessing somatic complaints since many years. With impending changes in the classificatory system on somatoform disorders, we re- assessed the test-retest reliability and inter-rater reliability of SASS.


METHODS
SASS was administered twice with a gap of 24 h on 20 subjects for test retest reliability. Two clinicians assessed inter-rater reliability on 20 subjects. Kendall tau B and Cronbach's alpha were calculated from the data.


RESULTS
All of the items except burning sensation, weakness of mind and trembling had strong correlation with values >±0.40 on both test retest and inter-rater reliability; burning sensation and trembling were not reported by any subject. On inter-rater reliability the items constipation, diarrhea, lack of libido weren't scored by any subjects. Cronbach's alpha for test retest was 0.982 and 0.840 indicating good internal consistency.


CONCLUSIONS
Majority of the symptoms in SASS had high correlation in both test retest reliability as well as inter-rater reliability, however few items needs revision.
Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Geetha
G
Desai
Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Santhosh K
SK
Chaturvedi
Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Ajit
A
Dahale
Department of Biostatistics, NIMHANS, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Palaniappan
P
Marimuthu
Reliability; scale for assessment of somatic symptoms; somatic symptoms