Authors: Andrew J Baillie
Publish Date: 2005/09/05
Volume: 40, Issue: 9, Pages: 743-748
Abstract
Kesslers Psychological Distress Scale K10 is a tenitem measure of psychological distress that has been used in recent epidemiological research and as a screen for mental disorders Moderate relationships have been reported between the K10 and measures of related constructs such as diagnoses of mental disorders and associated disability However it is unclear whether the validity of the K10 is consistent across important demographic cultural and socioeconomic groups such as gender and educational history or whether there is evidence of predictive bias or inconsistency across these groupsDifferential validity or predictive bias in the relationship between K10 scores and disability days SF12 Mental Component Summary MCS scores and 1month Composite International Diagnostic Interview CIDI diagnoses of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition DSMIV Anxiety and Depressive disorders due to gender and completing secondary school were examined using hierarchical linear and logistic regression analyses in the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing data setVery small slope and/or intercept biases in the relationship between the K10 and disability days the SF12 MCS and 1month CIDI diagnoses of anxiety and depression were found effect sizes the ratio of variance explained to unexplained variance Cohens f2 varied from 00001 to 0004Gender and educational predictive biases in the relationship between the K10 and disability days SF12 MCS and 1month diagnoses were found to be very small and are unlikely to have any practical impact This analysis adds to evidence supporting the use of the K10 in epidemiological researchThe design development and execution of the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing was funded by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services The development of the survey instrument was carried out by Prof Gavin Andrews Dr Lorna Peters Dr Tim Slade and others at the WHO Collaborating Centre in Mental Health at St Vincents Hospital Sydney The design development and conduct of the survey was overseen by Profs Scott Henderson Gavin Andrews Wayne Hall Helen Herrman Assen Jablensky and Bob Kosky Fieldwork and compilation of the data were conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics
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