title: A tool for sexual minority mental health research: The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) as a depressive symptom severity measure for sexual minority women in Viet Nam.
abstract: In a context with limited attention to mental health and prevalent sexual prejudice, valid measurements are a key first step to understanding the psychological suffering of sexual minority populations. We adapted the Patient Health Questionnaire as a depressive symptom severity measure for Vietnamese sexual minority women, ensuring its cultural relevance and suitability for internet-based research. Psychometric evaluation found that the scale is mostly unidimensional and has good convergent validity, good external construct validity, and excellent reliability. The sample's high endorsement of scale items emphasizes the need to study minority stress and mental health in this population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA; Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA; Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA; Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment, Viet Nam.
authors.forename: Trang Quynh
authors.initials: TQ
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bandeen-Roche
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA.
authors.forename: Judith K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Bass
authors.affiliation: Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: German
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA; Health Strategy and Policy Institute, Viet Nam.
authors.forename: Nam Thi Thu
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA.
authors.forename: Amy R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Knowlton
keywords: Depression; Viet Nam; lesbian; scale adaptation; sexual minority women; validation