A CAUTION ON THE USE OF CUT-POINTS APPLIED TO SCREENING INSTRUMENTS OR DIAGNOSTIC-CRITERIA

Although cut-points or threshold scores are commonly used in screening instruments as well as in psychiatric diagnostic practice, much is st ill to be learned about their functional characteristics. This study d emonstrates that, for a cut-off of y items on a screening instrument, there is great variability in the identification of caseness between d ifferent combinations of y items. The results suggest that the use of cut-points is perhaps not as reliable as is sometimes thought.