Comprehension and Motivation in Responses to a Psychiatric Screening Instrument Validity of the SRQ in Ethiopia

Abstract

The Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ), a psychiatric-case-finding instrument designed by the WHO for developing countries, was tested in Ethiopia. It was submitted to 40 patients attending a psychiatric clinic, 30 at a somatic clinic, and 40 subjects not attending a clinic. Forty per cent of the yes-answers were rated as invalid. The concept-invalidity contributed mainly to the rather poor criterion-validity of the SRQ. In addition, clinic patients seemed to heighten the number of yes-answers to express their need for help. The SRQ measured not only psychiatric complaints but also illness behaviour, even without the presence of any illness. This is a substantial disadvantage if the SRQ is applied to detect the psychiatric cases in the primary-care facilities.

Adapting the SRQ for Ethiopian Populations: A Culturally-Sensitive Psychiatric Screening Instrument

“…Although the validity criterion was different in the two studies (clinical interview vs. BPRS), this difference may not account for the observed difference in the validity between the two studies, since the validity of the BPRS itself against clinical interview is very high (Hafkenscheid, 1993). Differences in validity could be due, at least in part, to differences between our sample and that of Kortmann and Ten Horn (1988). However, this would only be a concern if the validity of the instrument changed with the characteristics of the respondents, which has not been demonstrated.…”

“…Because we conducted only 32 interviews with the original translation in this study, we could not directly assess the impact of our translation changes on the validity of the SRQ. However, Kortmann and Ten Horn (1988) carried out a similar study in Ethiopia using the original translation, which allowed us to compare the validity of the original 24-item SRQ with the retranslated version. The validity of the newly translated instrument was found to be higher.…”

Psychiatric case finding in Ethiopia: Shortcomings of the self reporting questionnaire

“…For the validation of the SRQ as a case finding instrument, we administered to the psychiatric group an extensive self-designed, semi-structured psychiatric interview, based upon DSM-III (average three hours); the other two groups were given a shorter interview (Kortmann 1986) to determine whether they were to be classified as psychiatric cases. The data from these interviews were submitted to an inter-rater reliability study by four independent raters, with satisfactory results (Kortmann and Ten Horn 1988).…”

A pilot study of eating disorders in Mirpur (Pakistan) using an Urdu version of the eating attitudes test

“…The interviewing of a sample of respondents after they have completed a self-report questionnaire offers an opportunity to check their comprehension (Kortmann & Ten Horn, 1988). The EAT was re-administered orally at interview to establish whether each item had been correctly understood, and these responses were compared with the earlier questionnaire responses.…”