Validation of the Sinhala version of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire

Abstract

Objective To determine the criterion validity of the Sinhala version of the General Health . Methods This was a descriptive cross-sectional study including 374 patients (between the ages 18 to 75 years) attending the outpatient department of the Colombo North Teaching Hospital during the period June 2009 to September 2010. The Sinhala version of the GHQ-12 was completed by the participants. The 'Clinical Examination' was done by the designated psychiatrist (blindly to the GHQ score) by employing the ICD 10 classification of 'Depression/Anxiety and Social Dysfunction' as a reference standard. Cut-off values for the GHQ-12 were determined by applying the Receiver Operation Characteristic (ROC) curves. Results The optimal cut-off level for GHQ-12 was 1/2 with a sensitivity of 74% (95%CI 66%-81.5%), and a specificity of 71% (95%CI: 65.4%-76.6%). Optimal cut-off levels were not changed based on gender, age and educational levels. The area under the ROC curve for GHQ-12 was 0.79 (95% CI: 74%-84%). Despite the above mentioned statistics/measurements, GHQ scores with specific likelihood ratios of >1 were obtained only for the total scores of ≥3. Conclusions The GHQ-12 displays its efficacy when used among the Sinhala speaking Sri Lankan primary care settings for assessing psychiatric disorders.

Association of Poor Social Support and Financial Insecurity with Psychological Distress of Chronic Kidney Disease Patients Attending National Nephrology Unit in Sri Lanka

“…Section two was a self-administered questionnaire. It included a short form of social support questionnaire (SSQ6) to measure social support [ 17 ], BRIEFCOPE to assess coping strategies [ 18 ], 0–10 pain rating scale to assess pain [ 19 ], and GHQ 12 to assess psychological distress [ 20 ].…”

A study of psychological impact on women undergoing miscarriage at a Sri Lankan hospital setting

“…A Sinhalese version of the 30-items general heath questionnaire (GHQ-30) has been validated to our population. 15 There are different scoring methods used and a likert method (0,0,1,2) was used in this study. In this study, threshold levels for positive screening were set at scores of 6 for GHQ-30 and 9 for the EDPS.…”

“…In this study, threshold levels for positive screening were set at scores of 6 for GHQ-30 and 9 for the EDPS. 14,15 The data analysis was done for comparison of the two groups for socio-demographic data as well as to describe the presence of psychological morbidity in each group and to determine the association between socio-demographic and obstetric data and psychological morbidity among women who underwent a miscarriage. Means, relative risks and odds ratios with confidence intervals were used for comparisons.…”

Rating Scales validated for Sri Lankan populations

“…The GHQ-30 has been translated into Sinhala and validated (12). The GHQ-30 contains 30 items scored on a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging from 0 (less than usual) to 3 (much more than usual).…”