Ks. Jacob et al., THE VALIDATION OF THE 12-ITEM GENERAL HEALTH QUESTIONNAIRE AMONG ETHNIC INDIAN WOMEN LIVING IN THE UNITED-KINGDOM, Psychological medicine, 27(5), 1997, pp. 1215-1217
Background. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) has been validated
in different languages and cultures and in diverse settings. However,
the validity of the 12-item version, increasingly used for screening f
or psychiatric morbidity in primary care, has not been established amo
ng ethnic Indians living in the United Kingdom. Methods. The GHQ-12 wa
s used to screen for psychiatric morbidity in a study of patterns of c
onsultation and explanatory models of mental illness in a general prac
tice in West London. All individuals who scored 2 or more and an equal
number of individuals who scored 0 or 1 were interviewed using the Re
vised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R) to confirm psychiatric morbi
dity. Hindi versions of the both these instruments were also employed.
Thresholds of GHQ were compared against the standard of the CIS-R usi
ng the recommended threshold of 12 and above as indicating caseness. A
receiver operator characteristic curve was drawn to obtain the best t
hreshold value for screening. Results. The optimal threshold for scree
ning as assessed by receiver operator characteristic analysis was 2/3.
This threshold had a sensitivity of 96.7 % and a specificity of 90 %.
Conclusions. The sensitivity and specificity of the 12-item General H
ealth Questionnaire among women of ethnic Indian origin living in the
United Kingdom is high. It can be employed as a screening instrument t
o identify individuals with psychiatric morbidity in this population.