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. 2014 Mar;23(1):109-19.
doi: 10.1002/mpr.1416.

Validation of lay-administered mental health assessments in a large Army National Guard cohort

Marta R Prescott  1 , Marijo Tamburrino, Joseph R Calabrese, Israel Liberzon, Renee Slembarski, Edwin Shirley, Thomas Fine, Toyomi Goto, Kimberly Wilson, Stephen Ganocy, Philip Chan, Alphonse Derus, Mary Beth Serrano, James Sizemore, Jeremy Kauffman, Sandro Galea
Affiliations

Validation of lay-administered mental health assessments in a large Army National Guard cohort

Marta R Prescott et al. Int J Methods Psychiatr Res. 2014 Mar.

Abstract

To report the reliability and validity of key mental health assessments in an ongoing study of the Ohio Army National Guard (OHARNG). The 2616 OHARNG soldiers received hour-long structured telephone surveys including the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) checklist (PCV-C) and Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9). A subset (N = 500) participated in two hour clinical reappraisals, using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM (SCID). The telephone survey assessment for PTSD and for any depressive disorder were both highly specific [92% (standard error, SE 0.01), 83% (SE 0.02)] with moderate sensitivity [54% (SE 0.09), 51% (SE 0.05)]. Other psychopathologies assessed included alcohol abuse [sensitivity 40%, (SE 0.04) and specificity 80% (SE 0.02)] and alcohol dependence [sensitivity, 60% (SE 0.05) and specificity 81% (SE 0.02)].The baseline prevalence estimates from the telephone study suggest alcohol abuse and dependence may be higher in this sample than the general population. Validity and reliability statistics suggest specific, but moderately sensitive instruments.

Keywords: assessment; military; “alcohol use disorders”; “depressive disorders”; “posttraumatic stress disorder”.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The 2616 completed surveys.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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