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. 2024 Jun 7:15:1216435.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1216435. eCollection 2024.

Validating the Spanish translation of the posttraumatic stress disorder checklist (PCL-5) in a sample of individuals with traumatic brain injury

E F Haghish  1 , Juan Sahuquillo  2 , Andreea Radoi  3 , Ingio Pomposo  4 , Guillermo Carbayo Lozano  4
Affiliations

Validating the Spanish translation of the posttraumatic stress disorder checklist (PCL-5) in a sample of individuals with traumatic brain injury

E F Haghish et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Introduction: There is controversy regarding the comorbidity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The present study translated the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) to Spanish and validated it in a sample of patients with TBI 6 months after the injury.

Methods: The study included 233 patients (162 males and 71 females) recruited from four Spanish hospitals within 24 h of traumatic brain injury. A total of 12.2% of the sample met the provisional PTSD diagnostic criteria, and the prevalence was equal between male and female participants.

Results: The analysis confirmed the internal consistency of the translated instrument (α = 0.95). The concurrent validity of the instrument was confirmed based on high correlation coefficients of 0.7 and 0.74 with the General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), respectively. Exploratory factor analysis also confirmed that the items on the PCL-5 can be differentiated from the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 items. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the structural validity of the Spanish translation of the PCL-5 with three different models. CFA partially confirmed the four-factor PTSD model, whereas both the six-factor anhedonia model and the seven-factor hybrid model showed adequate fit. However, the difference between the anhedonia and hybrid models was not statistically significant; moreover, both models showed signs of overfitting. Therefore, the utility of these models should be reexamined in future studies.

Conclusion: Overall, the results suggest that the Spanish translation of the PCL-5 is a reliable and valid instrument for screening PTSD symptoms among Spanish TBI patients. The Spanish translation of the PCL-5 is also presented in the manuscript.

Keywords: PCL-5; Spanish; post-traumatic stress disorder; traumatic brain injury; validation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Correlations between factors of the analyzed models.
Figure 2
Figure 2
CFA of the four-factor PTSD model based on DSM-5 symptomatology. All estimates are standardized.
Figure 3
Figure 3
CFA of the six-factor anhedonia model. All estimates are standardized.
Figure 4
Figure 4
CFA of the seven-factor hybrid model. All estimates are standardized.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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