title: Measurement properties of tools measuring mental health knowledge: a systematic review.
abstract: Mental health literacy has received great attention recently to improve mental health knowledge, decrease stigma and enhance help-seeking behaviors. We conducted a systematic review to critically appraise the qualities of studies evaluating the measurement properties of mental health knowledge tools and the quality of included measurement properties.
  
  
  
  We searched PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, and ERIC for studies addressing psychometrics of mental health knowledge tools and published in English. We applied the COSMIN checklist to assess the methodological quality of each study as "excellent", "good", "fair", or "indeterminate". We ranked the level of evidence of the overall quality of each measurement property across studies as "strong", "moderate", "limited", "conflicting", or "unknown".
  
  
  
  We identified 16 mental health knowledge tools in 17 studies, addressing reliability, validity, responsiveness or measurement errors. The methodological quality of included studies ranged from "poor" to "excellent" including 6 studies addressing the content validity, internal consistency or structural validity demonstrating "excellent" quality. We found strong evidence of the content validity or internal consistency of 6 tools; moderate evidence of the internal consistency, the content validity or the reliability of 8 tools; and limited evidence of the reliability, the structural validity, the criterion validity, or the construct validity of 12 tools.
  
  
  
  Both the methodological qualities of included studies and the overall evidence of measurement properties are mixed. Based on the current evidence, we recommend that researchers consider using tools with measurement properties of strong or moderate evidence that also reached the threshold for positive ratings according to COSMIN checklist.
authors.affiliation: Sun Life Financial Chair in Adolescent Mental Health team, IWK Health Centre, 5850 University Ave., P.O Box 9700, Halifax, NS, B3K 6R8, Canada. Yifeng.wei@iwk.nshealth.ca.
authors.forename: Yifeng
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4349-515X
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: IWK Health Centre, Nova Scotia Health Authority and Dalhousie University, 5850 University Ave., P.O Box 9700, Halifax, NS, B3K 6R8, Canada.
authors.forename: Patrick J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: McGrath
authors.affiliation: Centre for Clinical Research, Room 403, 5790 University Avenue, Halifax, NS, B3H IV7, Canada.
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hayden
authors.affiliation: Sun Life Financial Chair in Adolescent Mental Health team, IWK Health Centre, 5850 University Ave., P.O Box 9700, Halifax, NS, B3K 6R8, Canada.
authors.forename: Stan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kutcher
mesh_terms: D057189:Checklist / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D057220:Health Literacy / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D000066505:Help-Seeking Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057545:Social Stigma
keywords: Measurement tools; Mental health knowledge; Mental health literacy; Psychometrics; Systematic review