title: Validation of an Arabic version of the GHQ-28 against the Beck depression inventory for screening for depression in war-exposed civilians.
abstract: This study estimates the psychometric properties of the Arabic GHQ-28 against the BDI-II for screening for depression in war-exposed civilians. Two data sets collected in a civilian sample from South Lebanon were analyzed. Internal consistency in the two samples was high for the GHQ-28 (0.91 and 0.80) and the BDI-II (0.88 and 0.84). The BDI-II was significantly correlated with the GHQ-28 total score and the Depression subscale. The GHQ-28 yielded similar findings for depression cut-off scores compared to the BDI-II: for the GHQ-28 total score, a cut-off at 5/6 is recommended for detecting "severe/moderate" depression, and 8/9 for "severe" only, while from the Depression subscale analysis the recommendation was to use 8/9 as a cutoff for "severe/moderate" and 9/10 for "severe" depression. The Arabic GHQ-28 was found to be a valid instrument for screening for depression in the studied population.
authors.affiliation: 1 American University of Beirut, Faculty of Medicine, Hariri School of Nursing, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Laila F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Farhood
authors.forename: Hani
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dimassi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007861:Lebanon; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014857:Warfare