title: Comparison of the Diagnostic Accuracy and Validity of a Short Version of Teen Screen Questionnaire-Mental Health (TSQ -M-Short) for Use in Community.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A few self-administered questionnaires are available for assessing mental health among adolescents in primary-care settings. Brief measures are desirable for use in big-data, epidemiological studies.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate a 7-item version, of the Teen Screen Questionnaire-Mental Health (TSQ-M), the TSQ-M-Short.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this prospective cross-sectional study of 140 adolescents, recruited from 6 rural or urban schools, the newly developed TSQ-M-Short as the measure for validation and General Health Questionnaire-12 item (GHQ-12) as the gold standard measure were administered by independent trained raters. Tests for diagnostic accuracy and validity were conducted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total TSQ-M-Short score of ≥ 6 had a sensitivity of 76%, specificity of 74%, positive likelihood ratio of 2.99, negative likelihood ratio of 0.33, positive predictive value of 6% and a negative predictive value of 82.1%. The area under curve (AUC) in the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) for the TSQ-M-Short version was 0.84 (95% cumulative incidence (CI) = 0.76-0.89). The AUC for the TSQ-M-Short version was higher than the AUC for the original version, and the difference between the areas was 0.10 (95% CI = 0.02-0.19), which was statistically significant (z = 2.49; P = 0.01). The internal consistency of TSQ-M-Short, as measured by chronbach's α, was 0.34 (95% CI = 0.15-0.48). The construct validity demonstrated a 3-factor structure, which explained 55% of the variance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The TSQ-M-Short has an overall diagnostic accuracy which is better than the original TSQ-M. Although the original version includes symptoms for more mental health disorders, providing a wider screen. This short version will prove useful in big-data studies.
authors.affiliation: Child Development Centre, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
authors.forename: M K C
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Venkateswaran
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rajaraman
authors.affiliation: Child Development Centre, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
authors.forename: Deepa
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chacko
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Sushila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.affiliation: Child Development Centre, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
authors.forename: Babu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: George
authors.affiliation: Child Development Centre, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
authors.forename: Leena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sumaraj
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Paul Swamidhas Sudhakar
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Russell
keywords: Adolescents; diagnostic accuracy; mental-health; primary-care; questionnaire; validation