Authors
David P Goldberg, Richard Gater, Norman Sartorius, T Bedirhan Ustun, Marina Piccinelli, Oye Gureje, Cindy Rutter
Publication date
1997/1
Journal
Psychological medicine
Volume
27
Issue
1
Pages
191-197
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Description
Background
In recent years the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) has been extensively used as a short screening instrument, producing results that are comparable to longer versions of the GHQ.
Methods
The validity of the GHQ-12 was compared with the GHQ-28 in a World Health Organization study of psychological disorders in general health care. Results are presented for 5438 patients interviewed in 15 centres using the primary care version of the Composite International Diagnostic Instrument, or CIDI-PC.
Results
Results were uniformly good, with the average area under the ROC curve 88, range from 83 to 95. Minor variations in the criteria used for defining a case made little difference to the validity of the GHQ, and complex scoring methods offered no advantages over simpler ones. The GHQ was translated into 10 other languages for the purposes of this study, and validity coefficients were …
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Scholar articles
DP Goldberg, R Gater, N Sartorius, TB Ustun… - Psychological medicine, 1997