Title
Performance of a five-item mental health screening test
UMMS Affiliation
Harvard Community Health Plan
Publication Date
1991-02-11
Document Type
Article
Subjects
Adult; Boston; Health Maintenance Organizations; Humans; Mental Disorders; Middle Aged; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Questionnaires
Disciplines
Biostatistics | Epidemiology | Health Services Research
Abstract
We compared the screening accuracy of a short, five-item version of the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) with that of the 18-item MHI, the 30-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30), and a 28-item Somatic Symptom Inventory (SSI-28). Subjects were newly enrolled members of a health maintenance organization (HMO), and the criterion diagnoses were those found through use of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) in a stratified sample of respondents to an initial, mailed GHQ. To compare questionnaires, we used receiver operating characteristic analysis, comparing areas under curves through the method of Hanley and McNeil. The MHI-5 was as good as the MHI-18 and the GHQ-30, and better than the SSI-28, for detecting most significant DIS disorders, including major depression, affective disorders generally, and anxiety disorders. Areas under curve for the MHI-5 ranged from 0.739 (for anxiety disorders) to 0.892 (for major depression). Single items from the MHI also performed well. In this population, short screening questionnaires, and even single items, may detect the majority of people with DIS disorders while incurring acceptably low false-positive rates. Perhaps such extremely short questionnaires could more commonly reach use in actual practice than the longer versions have so far, permitting earlier assessment and more appropriate treatment of psychiatrically troubled patients in primary care settings.
Source
Med Care. 1991 Feb;29(2):169-76. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Medical care
PubMed ID
1994148
Related Resources
Repository Citation
Berwick, Donald M.; Murphy, Jane M.; Goldman, Paula A.; Ware, John E. Jr.; Barsky, Arthur J.; and Weinstein, Milton C., "Performance of a five-item mental health screening test" (1991). Population and Quantitative Health Sciences Publications. 492.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/qhs_pp/492
