Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T15:48:28.001Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Validity and Uses of a Screening Questionnaire (GHQ) in the Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

A. Tarnopolsky ,
D. J. Hand ,
E. K. McLean ,
Howard Roberts  and
R. D. Wiggins
A. Tarnopolsky
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF
D. J. Hand
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry
E. K. McLean
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital formerly Institute of Psychiatry
Howard Roberts
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Family Psychiatry, St Thomas's Hospital, London SE1, Formerly Research Worker, Institute of Psychiatry and Honorary Senior Registrar, Maudsley Hospital, London SE5
R. D. Wiggins
Affiliation:
St Thomas's Hospital, formerly Statistician, Institute of Psychiatry
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) has been validated against the criterion of a standardized psychiatric interview in the community. Used for screening, the GHQ misclassified 25 per cent of 105 respondents, being worse for men. Specificity and sensitivity were above.70. The alternative use of the GHQ as an estimator and as an indicator of morbidity in epidemiological surveys is described and discussed.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 134 , Issue 5 , May 1979 , pp. 508 - 515
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1979 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blum, R. H. (1962) Case-identification in psychiatric epidemiology: methods and problems. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, XL, 253–88.Google Scholar
Briscoe, M. E. (1978) Sex differences in perceptions of illness and expressed life satisfaction. Psychological Medicine, 8, 339–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diamond, E. L. & Lilienfeld, A. M. (1962) Effects of errors in classification and diagnosis in various types of epidemiological studies. American Journal of Public Health, 52, 1137–44.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. (1972) The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P., Cooper, B., Eastwood, M. R., Kedward, H. B. & Shepherd, M. (1970) A standardized psychiatric interview suitable for use in community surveys. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 24, 18–23.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P., Rickels, K., Downing, R. & Hesbacher, P. (1976) A comparison of two psychiatric screening tests. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tarnopolsky, A., Barker, S. M., Wiggins, R. D. & McLean, E. K. (1978) The effect of aircraft noise on the mental health of a community sample: a pilot study. Psychological Medicine, 8, 219–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tennant, C. (1977). The General Health Questionnaire: a valid index of psychological impairment in Australian populations. Medical Journal of Australia, 2, 392–4.Google Scholar
Vecchio, T. J. (1966) Predictive value of a single diagnostic test in unselected populations. New England Journal of Medicine, 274, 1171.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Mann, S. A., Leff, J. P. & Nixon, J. M. (1978) The concept of a ‘case’ in psychiatric population surveys. Psychological Medicine, 8, 203–17.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.